OUTLIVING generations of people and growing to an almost mythical age, old olive trees have now become a must-have, architectural statement for those who can afford a price tag that can top 11,000 euros.
At least 200 years old, two stately olive trees now stand at the entrance of Jean Nouvel Tower 25, a high profile building on Nicosia’s Stasinou Avenue named after the award-winning French architect.
Even more impressive is the monumental, gnarled ancient olive tree that was transplanted on the roundabout just outside the presidential palace nearly two years ago.
Nice Day Developers deliberately chose olive trees for the Jean Nouvel project as part of their vision to help make what will be the tallest building in Nicosia a true landmark when it is finished this year.
“Olive trees have something of the sacred. They have gravitas,” the representative of Nice Day said.
No one seems to be sure how long olive trees live for. Some are thought to be thousands of years old.
“There is a lot of discussion on this. There are trees that are meant to be 2,500 years old. On average, I would say they live for 500 years,” said the owner of Paphos-based New Roots Nursery, Stavros Saltos. “In Cyprus there trees that are over 600 years old and some are rumoured to be over 1,000 years old.”
But a living monument of history has a price. Even now with the crisis that has caused prices and sales drop, a fairly young olive tree aged around 20 years fetches anything between €180 and €250, said Saltos who grows and sells the younger olive trees. Those trees are about 25cm in diameter and their trunk is between four and six metres tall. By the time they reach 200 years, now wide enough to need three people to encircle them, the trees may go for €2,500.
Tassos Paplonapas, sales manager at Magistrato Gardens just outside Limassol, said a mature tree can cost between €2,000 and €4,000 though older trees nearing 500 or looking unusual in some way (e.g. boasting extra folds and hollow trunks) can cost up to €11,500.
Magistrato is the largest garden centre and nursery in the eastern Mediterranean with millions of plants of all kinds and some 1,000 older olive trees. The nursery has between 80 and 100 olive trees more than 200 years old. They buy trees from across the island (“if the tree is worth it”) from people who want to clear their land for farming or building purposes.
“Our client can be anyone from a homeowner who wants to decorate his garden to big businesses or developers who want to decorate their site,” Paplonapas said.
“A market has been created (for olive trees) by architects and designers,” said gardener and landscaper Alexander McCowan said, adding that over the last two decades, people started seeing the value of selling the trees to garden centres or interested parties instead of cutting them down to make room for building developments.
One of McCowan’s Nicosia clients even paid to get a potted ancient olive tree lifted by crane onto his 8th floor penthouse balcony.
But olive trees have also gone missing, uprooted to sell on to developers and garden centres. In 2009, environmentalists, Green party members and angry residents of Axylou village in Paphos demonstrated when 30 ancient olive trees, some dating back half a millennium, were uprooted.
Failing to uproot and transplant the trees properly could damage even the hardy olive tree, McCowan said.
“You have to do it properly… if you do not it will take a long time for the tree to recover,” he said.
An area that’s double the circumference of the trunk needs to be prepared, watered extensively, drained well, and then fed with nutrients. Potted trees need to get their roots carefully teased so they will be encouraged to grow downwards. The tree needs to be perfectly upright and, if young, needs to be supported so the wind doesn’t move it, McCowan said.
But even then the tree “will bear its revenge by not producing fruit for several years,” McCowan said though he added that mature olive trees will continue bearing fruit.
The Olive Oil museum close to the village of Anogyra between Paphos and Limassol is dedicated to oil extraction methods used over times and refers to the symbolism of the olive tree over time. In Greek and Roman times it was the tree of peace. The Old Testament refers to the olive tree of hope.
Perhaps, part of the olive tree’s enduring allure is that as most creatures of mythology, it seems to exist beyond time.
“How old do they live for? That’s an interesting question. They’re almost immortal, they will go on for hundreds of years, provided you don’t pour concrete over them,” McCowan said.
the monumental olive tree which has been replanted on the roundabout near the presidential palace