Pendolino Olives
L’olivier pleureur de Toscane — pollinisateur clé du Frantoio et du Leccino, et une huile légère et parfumée.
The Pendolino takes its name from its pendulous, weeping branches. It is one of central Italy’s most important pollinator varieties — planted among Frantoio and Leccino to help them fruit — and it gives a light, delicate, fragrant oil of its own. A graceful, useful tree that quietly makes the great Tuscan blends possible.
- Origin
- Tuscany / central Italy
- Type
- Oil olive + pollinator
- Colour
- Green to black
- Habit
- Weeping (pendulous)
- Flavour (oil)
- Light, delicate, fragrant
- Role
- Key pollinator for Frantoio/Leccino
- Best for
- Delicate oil, grove pollination
The tree that makes the others fruit
Many olive varieties fruit poorly on their own pollen, and Tuscan groves have long relied on the Pendolino to do the matchmaking — its abundant, well-timed flowering pollinates the Frantoio and Leccino around it. On its own it gives a light, fine, fragrant oil, gentler than the Frantoio it serves. And with its weeping silhouette, it is one of the prettiest olives in the grove.
You will rarely buy a single-variety Pendolino oil — its job is mostly in the grove, not on the label. But it is part of why a classic Tuscan Frantoio-Leccino blend exists at all: without good pollinators, those famous trees would set far less fruit.