White Olive

Product description

Impressive color in your garden with the White Olive. Available in a 1lt pot with a phytosanitary passport.

Leucocarpa, also called Leucolea, is an olive variety characterized by small fruits which, when ripe, take on an ivory white color.

"Mainly widespread in the regions of southern Italy, with a strong presence in Calabria, it was probably introduced during the colonization of Magna Graecia," said Innocenzo Muzzalupo, researcher at the Council for Agricultural Research and Economy, Olive, Citrus and Tree Research Center ( CREA-OFA), told Olive Oil Times.

The extra virgin olive oil produced from this variety has the same characteristics as all others in terms of fatty acid composition, flavors and aromas characteristic of a light fruity product," he explained.

"A small number of producers use it in blends with other dominant varieties, but because of the white color of the fruit, which in Western culture symbolizes purity, it ended up being used mainly for religious purposes."

That is why Leucocarpa is intended for the sacraments and other Catholic rites and, in the past, to anoint the emperor during the confirmation ceremony.

In the Leucocarpa variety, flavonoid and anthocyanin activation does not occur at all,” Muzzalupo explained. “This is the only variety that remains white at any stage of ripening, and if we leave the fruit on the trees until late winter, we will find them white, which tend to turn yellowish due to lipid oxidation.

This particular variety is Greek and originates from Alexandroupoli. Olea leucocarpa var. Alexandroupolis