Trees or shrubs, up to 10 m high, greyish green. Bark smooth when young, peeling off in narrow strips when old. Leaves oblong-lanceolate to ovate, 3-10 cm long, often cuspidate, very coriaceous, dark green and shining above, with a dense film of minute scales beneath which turn reddish brown on older leaves, margins recurved, midrib prominent; petiole short. Flowers whitish, in trichotomous axillary 2-4 cm long cymes. Calyx truncate or with 4 short teeth. Corolla tube very short, lobes 4, 1-2 mm long, elliptic, obtuse or acute, with a ridge along the middle. Drupe c. 8 mm long, 5 mm in diameter, ovoid, black when ripe; pulp scanty, oily.

Fl. Per.: April-May, sometimes September. Fruit: August-November.

Type: “Banks of Jumna and Sutlej, near Turanda” Royle (K).

Distribution: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir.

Very common in the lower hills, 500-2000 m, gregarious, usually with Acacia modesta. Frequently planted in graveyards. The wood is very hard and heavy, used for turning, ploughs etc. and as firewood.

This species could be treated as a subsp. of Olea europaea but I hesitate to do this without a full treatment of the complex.