The Entangled Phenology of the Olive Tree: A Compiled Ecological Calendar of Olea Europaea L. Over the Last Three Millennia With Sicily as a Case Study

Abstract

Seasonal cycles in plants and animals drive key timings of human practices in an agrosystem like the best time for harvest, planting, or pruning. Within the framework of historical phenological studies, we attempt a reconstruction of the olive ( Olea europaea L.) phenology along millennia. Thanks to its extraordinary longevity, the olive tree is a living proxy from the past and embodies a still uncollected long‐term memory of ecological behaviors. A cultural keystone species, olive cultivation has more and more played a crucial role for biodiversity conservation, livelihood of rural communities and their enrooted cultural identity in the whole Mediterranean. By compiling traditional phenological knowledge from historical written sources and oral traditions, and using it as historical bio‐indicator of the linkage between human ecological practices and seasonal changes of plant behavior, we compiled a monthly ecological calendar of the olive tree covering the last ∼2800 years. As a case study, we chose a special place: Sicily, unique for its position in the Mediterranean, geomorphology and legacies in the form of cross‐temporal accumulated eco‐cultures. Such a sui generis ecological calendar provides an additional case study to explore the intertwining of plant behavior and human adaptation strategies and the interplay between cultural diversity, ecological disturbance and phenological stability. All of this, in turn, can inform action for the present and future sustainable management of these millennial trees.

Key Points

• The compiled ecological calendar of the olive tree shows phenological stability over the last three millennia

• Land use is entangled with temporal plant behavior and place geography. Derived knowledge is adaptive, relational and transformative

• Cultural diversity and ecological disturbances have not, so far, undermined stability over the long term