FREE: Russian Olive--Great Privacy & Feeds Bees

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Elaeagnus angustifolia, commonly called silver berry, oleaster, Russian olive, or wild olive, is a species of Elaeagnus, native to western and central Asia, from southern Russia and Kazakhstan to Turkey and Iran. It is now also widely established in North America as anintroduced species.

Elaeagnus angustifolia is a usually thorny shrub or small tree growing to 5–7 m in height., although the mother plant from which these come from are not thorny. It's stems, buds, and leaves have a dense covering of silvery to rusty scales. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate, 4–9 cm long and 1-2.5 cm broad, with a smooth margin. The highly aromatic flowers, produced in clusters of 1-3, are 1 cm long with a four-lobed creamy yellow calyx; they appear in early summer and are followed by clusters of fruit, a small cherry-like drupe 1-1.7 cm long, orange-red covered in silvery scales. The fruits are edible and sweet, though with a dryish, mealy texture. Its common name comes from its similarity in appearance to the olive (Olea europaea), in a different botanical family, Oleaceae.

The shrub can fix nitrogen in its roots,[2] enabling it to grow on bare mineral substrates.

In Iran, the dried powder of the fruits is used mixed with milk for rheumatoid arthritis and joint pains. It is also one of the seven items which are used in Haft Sin or the seven 'S's which is a traditional table setting of Nowruz, the traditional Persian spring celebration.

My largest is 10 years old and easily reaches 14-15 feet in height and width. This makes for a terrific evergreen windbreak or privacy screen...I grow them for this, but mainly to supply my honeybee apiary with both nectar and pollen in the Summer, when little else is available for them.... Each packet contains 25 fresh seeds from my mother plant, which has several "volunteers" sprouting out beneath it's boughs.