Olive Trees

Italy's Olive Trees Are Dying. Can They Be Saved?

In southern Italy, bacteria are ruining groves and uprooting traditions. But scientists and growers are fighting back.

The Salento region, in Italy's boot heel, is widely known for its olive oil. But its storied groves face an uncertain future. In 2013, a devastating plant bacterium called Xylella fastidiosa was introduced to the region. To prevent the bacterium from spreading farther, officials made farmers uproot and burn infected trees. Here, olive farmer Rocco Ciurlia sets fire to leaves and branches left behind after he cut away the dead parts of his family's trees.
Photograph by Patricia Kühfuss

The first withered olive trees appeared near Gallipoli, in the Apulia region of southern Italy. Bunches of leaves turned brown and crunchy around the edges. Then, whole groves started to wane. Farmers whose families had tended olives for generations watched their trees dry up and their businesses plummet.

At first, it wasn’t clear what was causing the decline. Was it a fungus? A virus? Something else entirely? Scientists showed up in the olive groves to sample the trees, urgently trying to find the cause.

One researcher from a local agricultural institute had just come back from a conference in California, where he’d learned about the plant bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. The symptoms the olive growers were seeing, he realized, looked exactly like

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