Olive self-incompatibility and pollination in Syria

Olive has a significant role in Syrian culture, traditions, and economy since this species is original in the region. Although Olive pollination has a crucial impact on fruit set, but little attention was made regarding this fact in orchard establishment and management. In this paper, an efforts were made to collect all works dealing with olive self-incompatibility anf pollination in Syria, starting from early works, and covering all aspects regarding self- and cross-incompatibility among indigenous and imported olive cultivars in different areas in the country. The present work could be benefited from both farmers and researchers in area of olive physiology and orchard management. Local studies have identified compatibility between many olive cultivars, and a good effort has been made but is insufficient in terms of covering all olive cultivars in the country, or in terms of the depth of the studies and techniques used. It is important to adopt deeper methods for studying compatibility and utilizing paternity tests in this field, with an emphasis on anatomical studies and determining the effective pollination period of cultivars and. It is clear that adding pollinizers to olive orchards is a relatively low-cost strategy for integrated management of these orchards and should be considered in the future especially under current climate change.