Hippophae salicifolia

Willow-leaved sea buckthorn is in the oleaster or Elaeagnaceae family and is native to cold temperate regions Bhutan, northern India and Nepal. It is a spiny deciduous small tree or shrub, reaching a height of up to 3 m tall.

• Leaves are alternate, simple, narrow and lanciolate, up to 6.2 cm long and 1.2 cm across, with silver-green scaly surfaces somewhat resembling willow leaves.
• Branches and the tips of some twigs have sharp spines.
• The species is dioecious (bearing male and female flowers on separate plants), emerging before leaves appear in the spring. Female inflorescence is small, without a corolla, with a two-lobed calyx and one carpel, non-showy, yellow-green in small racemes; male flower has two brownish sepals and four stamens.
• Fruit is round, up to 7 mm in diameter in the fall, colour greenish-brown to orange-yellow, clustered densely along stems.