MISSION
Country: United States of America
Purpose: Dual-purpose (table and oil)
Synonyms: “Mammoth”, “Misionera”, “Misiones”, “Trilye”
Distribution: 4 continents
Africa
Documented, site-specific presences outside the cultivar’s core area
In Africa, Mission is reported in a limited and non-uniform way, mainly in contexts of introduction and varietal evaluation, with references to North Africa and parts of Southern Africa.
In these settings, Mission is typically treated as “transfer material”: what matters is local agronomy and plant-health management rather than a long-standing historical rooting of the genotype.
Americas
A California-defining cultivar with a broader American footprint
In the Americas, Mission is historically associated with California, where its presence is tied to the early phases of local olive growing and the development of regional table-olive and oil supply chains connected to mission-era territories.
The cultivar is also recorded under names/synonyms in parts of Mexico (especially the north-west) and appears, to a more limited extent, in South American contexts (trial or niche plantings), maintaining a distinctly “American” profile.
Asia
Introductions and trials in emerging olive territories
In Asia, Mission is reported unevenly, most often through technical lists, adaptation trials and local programmes in areas where olives are a relatively recent crop or are currently expanding.
In this role, Mission is valued for comparability: a “known” cultivar used as a benchmark to interpret agronomic and quality outcomes against territorial constraints and against other varieties.
Oceania
Australia and New Zealand: introduction-driven olive sectors
In Oceania, Mission is reported in Australia and New Zealand within the development pathways of modern olive growing, where cultivars were introduced and assessed through field evaluation.
In these landscapes, Mission tends to function as a “reference” planting material, supporting technical baselines (orchard management, harvest, end uses) in supply chains not rooted in long-standing Mediterranean tradition.
Agronomic and commercial considerations:
It has become the most important table olive variety in California, accounting for 50% of production. We first found the Mission variety in the orchards of the Jesuit and Franciscan missions, founded several centuries ago in different parts of California. The oil was extracted in the towns that developed around the missions, where it was used for cooking, healing wounds and lubricating machinery, as was done in Europe throughout its history. It has a medium flowering time and is partially self-compatible. The upright habit of this variety facilitates mechanical harvesting. It ripens late. It has a high productivity but is an alternate variety. It is a dual-purpose cultivar, the separation of the pulp from the seed is easy and the oil is of excellent quality, especially that produced in Butte County (Sacramento Valley). The cultivar is drought tolerant, but susceptible to olive leaf spot (Cycloconium oleaginum) and verticillium wilt (Verticillium dahliae) and shows some tolerance to olive knot (Pseudomonas savastanoi).