Greetings ...

John Attwood has sparked my curiosity about this somewhat unknown "Salome"
variety with his recent posting. I've just done some preliminary research
on one of its locations in Australia but as I'm not in the office I haven't
had a chance to check its proliferance overseas.

I've found a record of a single "Salome" tree also called "Tree 16" at the
Charles Sturt University Research Grove in Wagga Wagga (Planted 1963). It
was also previously known as "Tree 43" and you may come across it named as
such in older CSU literature. The name which has stayed with it throughout
the two numerical name changes is "Salome". I don't know of any research
into the history and origins of the CSU "Salome" but that's not to say that
there is none around.

I should also add that the latest CSU map calls it "Salone" not "Salome" but
the original map from which it was transcribed has an "m".

I have a photo of the CSU 43/16 "Salome" leaves and fruit taken 3rd June
2000. (Olives Australia commissioned a CSU staff member to scale-photograph
and record all of the trees in their 1963 collection.) In the photo, the
fruit are still green and therefore it would appear to be a later ripening
variety (however green fruit may have been selected by the photographer even
though black ones may have been on the tree OR if there was a heavy crop in
2000 then this would also have delayed ripening and reduced the size of
individual fruits). The photographed fruit are 18mm across and 25mm long.
They also have a very slight, nipple-like, slightly off-centre, point on one
end but it is not highly pronounced. The leaves in the photo range from
45mm to 70mm in length and are dark green (relative to some other olive
varieties such as Hojiblanca and Kalamata which tend to have lighter green
leaves).

The seed in the fruit photographed is about 9mm across but no length
dimension is shown. The CSU 43/16 "Salome" were DNA tested along with every
other variety in the grove last year but there were no conclusive results to
identify it or relate it any other variety.

Naturally, much further research and DNA and AFLP testing would be needed if
it is to be studied further but I hope these notes help in the comparitive
identification of the CSU tree with anyone who has "Salome" in their grove.

Kind regards,
Julian Archer
Olives Australia

There is an olive variety recorded from France (66% of the acreage in
Bouches-du-Rhone) called "Salonenque" (synonym "Plant de Salon"). This is
referenced in "World Catalog of Olive Varieties" (pg 79) recently published
by the IOOC. Often varietal names change somewhat (or are spelled
differently) as they move from one region to another. I wonder if this might
not be "Salome" after hearing Julian Archer's reference that CSU referred to
a test variety as "Salone".

Steve Sibbett
U.C. Farm Advisor
Phone - office 559.733.6486
Mobil 559.280.0666
FAX 559.734.2708