Elaeagnus angustifolia

Russian-olive or silverberry is a species in the oleaster or Elaeagnaceae family and is 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 an introduced species, often an invasive one in hot, dry central and southern parts of the U.S. and Canada. The shrub can fix nitrogen in its roots, enabling it to grow on bare mineral substrates.

Its common name comes from its similarity in appearance to the olive (Olea europaea), although the olive is in a different botanical family, the Oleaceae.

• Leaves are alternate, simple, lanciolate, to 8 cm long and 2 cm across, silver-green, scaly above and silvery below (leaf surface reminiscent of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides)).
• Flowers are small and yellow, highly aromatic, in clusters of 1 to 3, 1 cm long with a 4-lobed creamy yellow calyx.
• Fruit is an edible berry yellow to gray about 1 cm long.
• Bark is rough, brown and fibrous, shedding in thin strips. Some shoots have spines.