That word does not mean what you think it does ;)

No, they're not. They can be grown in a monoculture (a large area occupied by the same plant), but they're not clones like bananas.

They are, however, slow. What you plant today doesn't give you olives any time soon.

> They are, however, slow. What you plant today doesn't give you olives any time soon.

That's why news like this terrify me so much. Even deadly human diseases seem depressingly harmless by comparison, given the relative ease with which we can be replaced, relative to a very old tree. Thinking of humans as replaceable feels awful.