Portugal is home to hundreds of ancient olive trees, one may be over 3,700 years old
Portugal's Ancient Olive Groves: Trees Older Than Most Civilizations
Poinews.com – While German botanists recently identified what may be the oldest tree in their country at roughly 1,100 years, Portugal quietly harbours hundreds of specimens already past the two-thousand-year mark. Olive trees dominate this category, and their ages have been formally verified through research conducted at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD).
The Contender at Herdade do Peso
The tree currently holding the top spot for greatest age sits on the Herdade do Peso estate in Vidigueira, within Beja district, in the Alentejo region. Assessed in 2021, it is estimated to exceed 3,700 years of continuous growth. Known locally as the "Oliveira do Peso," it entered the 2024 Portuguese Tree of the Year national contest and placed third, missing out on representing Portugal at the European level.
The estate's own statement framed the candidacy around the tree's "heritage significance," describing it as "the oldest millennial olive tree on the Herdade do Peso estate." That grove sits on a plain hosting "a group of olive trees whose combined ages exceed 7,000 years."
Abrantes' Millennia-Old Olive
For years, the title of Portugal's oldest olive appeared to belong to the "Oliveira do Mouchão" in the municipality of Abrantes. A UTAD statement from October 2018 placed its age at 3,350 years at that point.
"A contemporary of the Phoenicians, Celtiberians and Romans."
By early 2022, the university reported the tree was still "producing olives as if in the flower of youth, despite a trunk gnawed away by the ravages of time." It had endured, among other things, the passage of "invading peoples, barbarians and displaced peoples" across millennia, "thanks to the deep roots it has put down" in the soil. That same year it competed in the European Tree of the Year national round, finishing fifth and thus failing to advance to the international stage.
The Science Behind the Numbers
Every age figure cited above derives from a mathematical model developed by a UTAD research team. The method, now patented, correlates a tree's estimated age with measurable trunk characteristics—diameter, height, circumference. Details of the approach were published through the Florestas.pt portal, an initiative of The Navigator Company and Raiz – Forest and Paper Research Institute.
The university has applied the technique in partnership with the company Oliveiras Milenares since 2007, certifying countless specimens both within Portugal and overseas. By the time the Abrantes discovery was confirmed, UTAD had already verified "many other millennial olive trees" scattered across the country.
A National and International Footprint
Beyond the two headline trees, UTAD has documented ancient olives in locations including Santa Iria de Azóia (Loures), where one specimen was calculated at approximately 2,850 years; Monsaraz (Évora district), home to several millennial trees, one around 2,450 years old; and sites in Estremoz, Montemor-o-Novo, Lagoa, Beja, Vilamoura, Évora, and Serralves Park in Porto.
The university's reach extends abroad as well. Invitations have brought its dating work to Spain and France—Bordeaux, Girona, Málaga, and the island of Menorca, where a tree exceeding 2,300 years has been certified.
Why the Olive Outlives Everything Else
José Luís Louzada, the UTAD researcher who built the scientific framework underpinning these assessments, explained the species' extraordinary resilience in a statement on the university's website:
"Without doubt one of the living beings that best withstand the passage of time, thanks to its strong capacity for rejuvenation."
His explanation: even a trunk fragment of considerable age retains the ability to sprout anew, enabling the tree to keep "producing olives." Louzada attributes this longevity, among other factors, to the species' exceptional regenerative biology.
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