PICHOLINE MAROCAINE
Country: Morocco
Purpose: Dual-purpose (table and oil)
Synonyms: “Beldi”, “Bouchouika”, “Bousbina”, “Zit”, “Zitoun”.
Distribution: 2 continents
Africa
A backbone cultivar and a national landscape
In Africa, Picholine Marocaine is a reference cultivar in Morocco, where it forms the backbone of the olive heritage and shapes a recognizable landscape: large olive areas, production continuity, and value chains that work with both oil and table olives.
Its territorial role is tied to its ability to perform across different pedoclimatic conditions and to its hardiness under dry settings; management, however, remains attentive on the plant-health side, because susceptibility to peacock spot influences pruning, canopy aeration, and monitoring.
Within the TGoP vision, this “central” presence tells a story of olive growing that does not migrate to chase new borders, but consolidates a territorial identity: a balance between water resources, agricultural landscape, and the cultivar’s dual-purpose profile.
Europe
Documented presence in collections and study contexts
In Europe, Picholine Marocaine is present in conservation and research settings (varietal collections and germplasm banks), where it is maintained as a reference for genetic, agronomic, and quality comparisons.
In these contexts, the interest is primarily methodological: observing how the cultivar behaves across different Mediterranean environments, without forcing a “commercial” reading, and assessing how its adaptation traits and dual-purpose profile express beyond its area of origin.
For TGoP, Europe therefore adds a “system-level” reading: the cultivar enters into dialogue with networks of conservation and knowledge, showing how biodiversity is also safeguarded through living collections and controlled trials.
Agronomic and commercial considerations: This variety is well adapted to the pedoclimatic conditions of the entire country where it represents more than 96% of the entire olive growing heritage. This variety is considered rustic with an average entry into production. It blooms in intermediate period, and it is partially self-compatible. Productivity is high but alternating. It is a cultivar with a dual purpose, it provides every type of edible product, from green crushed to black ripe. The detachment of the pulp from the seed is easy and the oil is of an excellent quality. One of the characteristics of the oil produced by Picholine Marocaine is its resistance to freezing, in fact it becomes paste-like at -12 ºC (-13 ºF) and therefore it is also used for canned-food. The cultivar is resistant to drought but sensitive to olive leaf spot (Cycloconium oleaginum).