No, it isn't an olive tree, and provides no people food, but they call it a Black Olive Tree anyway; go figure.

Every time they fly through, the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers pause to peck my black olive trees. You can see all the holes they've left in the bark over the years.

Those little leaves in front of the tree are Cassia, a butterfly host plant that happens to be growing beside the Black Olive Tree.

It was too dark to photograph the woodpecker at the trunk under the thick crown of leaves, so when I saw it fly off to visit a palm tree next door, I ran after it for a more sunny photo. I didn't have to run after this swarm of bugs. It was on the trunk of the tree near the bottom in plain sight. I've seen them a couple of times, but don't know what bug they are yet.

One of the redeeming qualities of Black Olive Trees is that it attracts interesting creatures, like the woodpecker, green parrots, and this upside-down squirrel feasting on the seeds.

Humm... that does imply that it has not-so-good qualities. It is a horribly messy tree. You can sweep the porch, but one solid breeze leaves it looking like this only minutes later.

It also has these strange looking bugs, presumably larvae, but of what I've no idea.

My Black Olive Tree drops leaves, and these spent flower clusters, and it never seems to stop. When the mess gets wet in the rain or morning dew, it spreads out in a brown tea-like stain.

Black Olive seems to have been a favorite when my development when in; there are a lot of them where I live. I lost other trees in the hurricanes, but none of the Black Olive trees fell. They did lose branches, and some were tangled high in the crown and darned hard to get down safely.

I suppose that I have creatures nectaring on the flowers, but I've trimmed a lot of the lower branches, so it's hard to see what uses them.