Nocellara del Belice
The plant
Nocellara del Belice is, like all olive trees, an evergreen plant whose height from the ground almost never exceeds 3.50 meters.
The young plants show a regular cylindrical trunk, while in the older or secular ones, which make up about 30% of the total, the trunk assumes an irregular shape with humps and showy grooves. This is a kind of distinctive traits of the identity and history of the plant.
The leaves are inserted on the branches and have a flat and straight shape with an intense green color in the upper part and sage gray in the lower part. Leaves usually last about three years.
The inflorescences are not single but show cluster shape and typically appears in the first part of April.
Following the inflorescence, the flowers appear, small and white in color. It usually happens in the month of May.
The flower is hermaphrodite, meaning it contains both male and female organs.
However, Nocellara variety is self-incompatible because its own pollen is unable to fertilize the ovary.
It is for this reason that in the Nocellara variety olive groves there are mixed a small number of so-called pollinating plants or other olive trees variety such as Biancolilla or Giarraffa.
Some peculiarities of Nocellara del Belice variety olive groves:
- prefers fresh soils
- suffers from excessive drought
- it is very sensitive to attacks by olive fly and the so-called peacock eye as well as other fungal or bacterial diseases
The fruit
The fruit has a spherical shape with a large rounded base and a weight varying between 5 and 7 grams.
The high-quality pulp is firm and crunchy. It has an intense green color that becomes vinous red when ripe.
The complete ripening usually takes place in the month of December but the harvest starts earlier by the month of October.
The pulp is consistent and represents about 85% of the olive.
Some peculiarities of Nocellara del Belice variety olive groves:
- the oil yield is around 13-14%
- organoleptic characteristics: medium fruity
- chemical characteristics: acidity less than 0.3% and peroxide content less than 7 meq O2 / kg
