SELECTION OF IMPROVED OLIVE CULTIVARS

Olive trees were first planted in South Australia in 1836. Since then, feral progeny have spread from abandoned orchards and now grow, untended, across large areas of southern Australia. Part of the research for the olive improvement program at the University of Adelaide, is focused on the selection of superior olive varieties from this unique and diverse gene pool. Many characters contribute to the performance of olive trees and we are using a range of techniques to assess the potential of new cultivars. These include Soxhlet extraction to measure oil yield, gas chromatography to measure fatty acid profiles and sensory evaluation to determine oil quality. A sequence-tagged site (STS) has been developed to identify a genetic marker linked to resistance to olive leaf spot, which is caused by the pathogen, Spilocea oleaginea (syn. Cycloconium oleaginum). These tools have been applied to trees identified in the feral survey to select superior individuals that will be subjected to further evaluation.

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