Louisiana Plant ID | Elaeagnus pungens (Russian olive)

FAMILY: ELAEAGNACEAE

ALTERNATE COMMON NAME:

LEAVES: simple, alternate, entire, wavy margins; light olive green and glabrous above, creamy brown and scurfy below; conspicuous rusty-brown dots (stellate trichomes)

FLOWER: November to December; axillary clusters of small tubular flowers with 4 lobes; silvery-white to brown.

FRUIT: drupe, 1-1.5”; red to brown; calyx persistant

TWIGS: brown and scrufy (roughly scaly)

BARK:

FORM: shrub with long summer sprouts with long internodes

HABITAT: prefers full sun and well drained soils

RANGE: native of Asia; found North Carolina to Texas

USES: fruit is widely used by most upland game birds and many song birds, mammals such as raccoon, opossum, black bears; good escape cover; Common ornamental; naturalized and may be a pest in some regions

Best Recognition Features:

glabrous light-olive upper leaf
scabrous creamy lower leaf
rough brown twigs

School of Renewable Natural Reources	Louisiana Plant Identification and Interactive Virtual Tours Dr. Chris S. Reid, Project Director \| creid4@lsu.edu LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources LSU AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA © 2003-2020 website problems or broken links: mbowen@agcenter.lsu.edu page revised: 15-Jan-2020 4:11 PM msb	LSU AgCenter
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