See text Picconia is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, found in the laurel forests habitat of Macaronesia.
[1] They are evergreen shrubs to trees with large, opposite, entire, shiny, ovoid leaves and numerous flowers.
The flowers are small, white and fragrant, followed by one-seeded, olive-like green fruits, ripening to bluish-black.
[3] Tree species with laurel-like leaves are predominant, forming a dense canopy up to 40 m high that blocks out most light, resulting in scant vegetation in the understory.
[3] Most of these tree species in Africa are ancient paleoendemic[4] species of the genera Laurus, Ocotea, Persea, and Picconia, which in ancient times were widely distributed on the African and European continents.