Herbal Database Search Results

Elaeagnus umbellata

Physical Characteristics

A decidious shrub growing to 4.5m by 4m at a medium rate. It is hardy to zone 3 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from May to June, and the seeds ripen from September to November. The scented flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees. It can fix Nitrogen. It is noted for attracting wildlife. We rate it 4/5 for edibility and 2/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, requires well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought. The plant can tolerate maritime exposure.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivar 'Hidden Springs': Hedge, Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade.
Cultivar 'Jazbo': Hedge, Woodland, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade.

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw or cooked[2, 46, 105]. Juicy and pleasantly acid, they are tasty raw and can also be made into jams, preserves etc[160, 183, 194]. The fruit must be fully ripe before it can be enjoyed raw, if even slightly under-ripe it will be quite astringent[K]. The fruit contains about 8.3% sugars, 4.5% protein, 1% ash[194]. The vitamin C content is about 12mg per 100g[194]. Mature bushes in the wild yield about 650g of fruit over 2 - 3 pickings[194]. The harvested fruit stores for about 15 days at room temperature[194]. The fruit is about 8mm in diameter[200] and contains a single large seed[K].
Seed - raw or cooked[194]. It can be eaten with the fruit though the seed case is rather fibrous[160].

Medicinal Uses

Astringent Cancer Cardiac Pectoral Stimulant.

The flowers are astringent, cardiac and stimulant[240].
The seeds are used as a stimulant in the treatment of coughs[240]. The expressed oil from the seeds is used in the treatment of pulmonary affections[240].
The fruit of many members of this genus is a very rich source of vitamins and minerals, especially in vitamins A, C and E, flavanoids and other bio-active compounds. It is also a fairly good source of essential fatty acids, which is fairly unusual for a fruit. It is being investigated as a food that is capable of reducing the incidence of cancer and also as a means of halting or reversing the growth of cancers[214].

Other Uses

Very tolerant of maritime exposure, it makes a good informal hedge, succeeding even in very exposed positions[75]. The plants make a reasonable wind-protecting screen, they are about as wide as they are tall. They make a good companion hedge, enriching the soil and fertilizing neighbouring plants[K].
The wood is a good fuel[146].

Cultivation details

Propagation

Scent

Flowers: Fresh

The flowers are sweetly and heavily scented.

Cultivars

'Red Wing'

A very good fruiting form (though it was developed for ornament and not for fruit quality)[182].

'Jazbo'

This cultivar has been bred for its edible fruits which are said to be ripe when 'they drop into your hand'[214]. This makes them valuable in breeding programmes to develop easily harvested fruits[214]. The fruit is sweet and tasty, if they are still astringent when harvested then this is because they are not fully ripe - storing them in a warm place for a day or so will complete the ripening process[183].

'Hidden Springs'

Selected for its larger and better flavoured fruit[183].

'Cardinal'

A very good fruiting form (though it was developed for ornament and not for fruit quality)[182].

Suppliers

Cool Temperate Nurseries

10 Ivy Grove
Nottingham
NG7 7LZ
Email: philcorbett53@hotmail.com
Phone 0115 847 8302 Fax 0115 847 8302
Distribution: UK
How to order: Direct from Cool Temperate by email/phone
Notes: Many Trees supplied on their own rootstock
Last Updated: April 03
Item: Elaeagnus umbellata (Autumn olive)

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

PFAF Web Pages

• PFAF Catalogue: Checklist of plants
  
• Hedges and their uses
  
• PFAF: Edible Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Britain
  
• PFAF: Edible Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Britain: D-E
  
• Checklist of plants suitable for hedging and windbreaks.
  
• Checklist of plants suitable for hedging and windbreaks: D-F
  
• PFAF Plant Catalogue (D-E)
  
• Checklist of plants suitable for hedging and windbreaks.
  
• PFAF: Edible Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Britain
  

Web References

• [H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
• [E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
• [B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
• [G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
• [P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
• [DEN] Data _ Photos (Good Identification info) from the Virginia Tech's Dendrology Deptarments' Tree Fact Sheets.
• [HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database
• [FEIS] Data (Uses, Ecology, Fire Effects) from the USDA Forestry Service Fire Effects Information System.
• [FEIS] Data (Uses, Ecology, Fire Effects) from the USDA Forestry Service Fire Effects Information System.

• [H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
• [G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.

References for the family Elaeagnaceae.

• To be included in the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[11] Bean. W. Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain. Vol 1 - 4 and Supplement. Murray 1981
A classic with a wealth of information on the plants, but poor on pictures.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[58] Ohwi. G. Flora of Japan. (English translation) Smithsonian Institution 1965
The standard work. Brilliant, but not for the casual reader.

[75] Rosewarne experimental horticultural station. Shelter Trees and Hedges. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1984
A small booklet packed with information on trees and shrubs for hedging and shelterbelts in exposed maritime areas.

[78] Sheat. W. G. Propagation of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers. MacMillan and Co 1948
A bit dated but a good book on propagation techniques with specific details for a wide range of plants.

[88] RHS. The Garden. Volume 112. Royal Horticultural Society 1987
Snippets of information from the magazine of the RHS. In particular, there are articles on plants that are resistant to honey fungus, oriental vegetables, Cimicifuga spp, Passiflora species and Cucurbits.

[98] Gordon. A. G. and Rowe. D. C. f. Seed Manual for Ornamental Trees and Shrubs.
Very comprehensive guide to growing trees and shrubs from seed. Not for the casual reader.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[146] Gamble. J. S. A Manual of Indian Timbers. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh 1972
Written last century, but still a classic, giving a lot of information on the uses and habitats of Indian trees. Not for the casual reader.

[160] Natural Food Institute, Wonder Crops. 1987.
Fascinating reading, this is an annual publication. Some reports do seem somewhat exaggerated though.

[182] Thomas. G. S. Ornamental Shrubs, Climbers and Bamboos. Murray 1992 ISBN 0-7195-5043-2
Contains a wide range of plants with a brief description, mainly of their ornamental value but also usually of cultivation details and varieties.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[194] Parmar. C. and Kaushal. M.K. Wild Fruits of the Sub-Himalayan Region. Kalyani Publishers. New Delhi. 1982
Contains lots of information on about 25 species of fruit-bearing plants of the Himalayas, not all of them suitable for cool temperate zones.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[214] Matthews. V. The New Plantsman. Volume 1, 1994. Royal Horticultural Society 1994 ISBN 1352-4186
A quarterly magazine, it has articles on Himalayacalamus hookerianus, hardy Euphorbias and an excellent article on Hippophae spp.

[240] Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. 1986
Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.

[245] Genders. R. Scented Flora of the World. Robert Hale. London. 1994 ISBN 0-7090-5440-8
An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.

Readers Comments

Elaeagnus - Autumn Olive

Matt Trahan (matttrahan@ecsu.campus.mci.net) Mon, 17 Nov 1997

Just finished reading your very informative article at http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/elaeagns.html We grow Eleagnus 'russian olive' (unsure of species) as an evergreen hedge in our back yard here in northeastern North Carolina, U.S.A. It is also a very common shrub out on the outer banks of N.C. In our hot and humid climate (USDA zone 8) it will do ok in swales/waterlogged areas. In fact it acts almost as happy as a willow on a streambank.

Autumn olive is very common here as a hedge or specimen shrub. With its beautiful perfume and silvery leaves, it's very attractive. Unfortunately, it is now classed as an invasive pest by the Virginia Native(?) plant society. This plant was discussed during a lecture on invasive plants at the Maymont Flower and Garden show in Richmond Va. last Spring. Slides were shown of entire hillsides being taken over. I have to admit that the russian olive will reseed almost as easily as the autumn olive. Still not sure about ripping out the hedge though. It is very attractive, does provide great privacy and a wonderful perfume in fall.

(sigh) Wonder if they said the same thing about purple loosestrife.

I appoligise for giving you such news, but I thought you might be interested in how well (too well) it does on this side of the Atlantic. I hope your findings are different in the UK.

Regards, Matt Trahan

Details of Growing Condition: USDA zone 8, Sunset zone 31, AHS heat zone 7, northeastern N.C..

Cross references: Genera: Elaeagnus. Web-pages: Elaeagnus x ebbingei - A Plant for all Reasons..

Elaeagnus multiflora

Jeff Grover (grov.indus@juno.com) Mon Aug 07 10:53:37 2000

I'm glad I finally found your web page. I've been growing Elaeagnus multiflora for six years as a fruit crop and have been searching for others doing the same.

The original two plants were E. multiflora grafted on either E. umbellata or E. angustifolia rootstock. This grafted plant produces blossoms in April to produce a heavy crop around the first of July. Besides wood ash from the wood stove there has been no soil amenities added. They are planted on a 25 degree slope with virtually no topsoil over clay .

The USDA Zone for here is 6 but due to the altitude (1400 ft) and heavy rainfall (45 in) we tend to get a lot of freezing rain in the winter and some very hard frosts late in the spring.

The reason I chose E. multiflora for an orchard crop was for the hardiness and the fact that deer won't eat them, as they have everything else in the orchard, and I can harvest a unique berry for the tourist market here.

The information provided on your web page is not available in American horticulture books and is an inspiration for me to expand my orchard.

Cross references: Plants: Elaeagnus multiflora, Elaeagnus angustifolia. Web-pages: Elaeagnus x ebbingei - A Plant for all Reasons..

Elaeagnus - Autumn Olive

Myra Bonhage-Hale (lapaix@iolinc.ne) Sat May 12 20:45:00 2001

I am very interested in Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) - have been trying to distill the flowers for essential oil and hydrosol - the aroma is not the same as the oh, so sweet and evocative smell of the flowers on the bush. In West Virginia, USA, it is considered invasive and exotic and is abhorred by farmers, especially cattle farmers. I am interested in finding a good use for this plant which has so many good attributes: nitrogen fixing, habitat for blue birds - and full of lycopene which is knwn to be an antioxidant - and perhaps a preventive action for chronic diseases including certain cancers. Seen as an enemy by most farmers in West Virginia, finding it to be a friend and useful appeals to my sometimes quixotic attitude toward life. Any help, any research, any comments will be appreciated. Myra Bonhage-Hale, La Paix Herb Farm, Alum Bridge, West Virginia email: lapaix@iolinc.net. Web Site: www.lapaixherbaljourney.com

Cross references: Genera: Elaeagnus. Web-pages: Elaeagnus x ebbingei - A Plant for all Reasons..

Elaeagnus multiflora

marguerite nabinger (webmaster@appollonia.net) Fri Jun 1 07:59:14 2001

I was recently reading a website on sustainable agriculture called Wild Thyme Farm which is located in the Oregon/Washington area of the US. He was very enthusiastic about this plant and suggested planting it liberally in pasture areas for forage for cattle. He suggested the plant be coppiced so that it would put out abundant shoots after being cut back. That might be an idea for plant control if the eleagnus is running wild, just turn a herd of goats out in it for a few days!

Details of Growing Condition: From website, Oregon/Wash USA area. Cool coastal area with fogs. Rural farm with diversified products..

Cross references: Plants: Elaeagnus multiflora, Elaeagnus angustifolia. Web-pages: Elaeagnus x ebbingei - A Plant for all Reasons..

Elaeagnus - Autumn Olive

Larry (Larrytoo@mailcity.com) Fri Oct 19 16:58:17 2001

I have had an Elaeagnus - Autumn Olive hedge here in Va for about 15 years (just south of DC). Quite leggy just now and to be cut back soon. Surprised to find it now on the "Invasive" list (and to find its relative Russian Olive listed as a noxious weed in Utah) as I acquired this hedge in bare root form from the state of Va!

I also have an Ebbingei hedge across the front yard, a far superior hedge in my opinion, well knit togather but a B***h to trim due to the resinouus dust from the leaves in early autum and in this area it really needs trimming twice a year.

Questions:

The Autum hedge I can trim back almost to stumps and it returns with vengence, how far back can the Ebbingei be safely cut, and when is this best done?

In propagating the Ebbingei, I could use a bit more detail, for example, what is ment by "with heel" when taking clippings.

Thanks

Details of Growing Condition: Just south of DC (ZIP 22306), predominently low grade fill dirt with deposits of marine slip clay, water table about ten feet down, area known as "Death Valley" by the local plant shops..

Cross references: Genera: Elaeagnus. Web-pages: Elaeagnus x ebbingei - A Plant for all Reasons..

Elaeagnus - Autumn Olive

() Fri Oct 19 17:22:06 2001

I am confuzzeled here. I understand that Autum Olive is Elaeagnus angustifolia (oringe/red berries), common in the Virginias while Umbellata is the Russian Olive (Yellow berries) rare her but common in the West.

Cross references: Plants: Elaeagnus angustifolia. Genera: Elaeagnus. Web-pages: Elaeagnus x ebbingei - A Plant for all Reasons..

Elaeagnus x ebbingei - A Plant for all Reasons.

Mike Hardman Fri Nov 2 18:04:24 2001

I have seen thickets of a species of Elaeagnus growing in gently rolling hills west of Calgary, Canada. I do not know which species it was, but I thought I'd mention it since there has been mention here of doubts about hardiness of X ebbingei in the far north of the UK (I am thinking of my sister in Caithness). Maybe there is scope for crossing with this Canadian species - which must be darn hardy. Oh, the species I saw had plain silvery leaves and grew about 9ft tall, spreading by suckers.

Details of Growing Condition: Gravelly clays a few miles west of Calgary, Canada.

Cross references: Plants: Elaeagnus x ebbingei. Genera: Elaeagnus. Web-pages: Elaeagnus x ebbingei - A Plant for all Reasons..

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
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