Russian olive

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Russian olive flowers

Russian olive fruits

Russian olive bud

Russian olive

Russian olive

Russian olive bud

Russian olive bark

Russian olive

Russian olive leaves

Russian olive flowers

Russian olive

Morphology

Trunk

Erect, sometimes reclining, crown dense; branches numerous, low; bark grayish-brown, shallowly furrowed, sometimes peeling in this strips.

Twigs

Reddish-brown, slender, flexible, coated with gray, scaly pubescence; older twigs becoming glabrous; twigs often ending in a short spine; leaf scars small, half-round, bundle scar 1; buds ovoid, 1/10 inch, obtuse, blunt, gray scaly.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, deciduous; lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 1.8 to 3.6 inches long, 1/2 to 1 inch wide; base cuneate; margins entire, often undulate; tip acuminate to obtuse; upper surface dark green, whitened with minute scale-like stellate pubescence, lower surface silvery-white, densely covered with the scales; petiole 1/3 to 1/2 inch, scaly.

Flowers

Solitary or in clusters of 2-3 in leaf axils of current yeast's growth; pedicels 1/8 to 1/4 inch; calyx lobes 4, fused below, spreading or reflexed above, petal-like, silvery scaly on the outside, yellow on the inside, triangular, 1/8 to 1/6 inch; petals absent; stamens 4, anthers yellow; ovary concealed in calyx tube; stigma linear, recurred, often exserted.

Fruit

September; short-stalked; yellow to brown, oval, 2/5 to 3/5 inch long, 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick, covered with silvery scales, flesh dry and mealy; stone brown with darker longitudinal stiles, oblong, ca. 2/5 inch, pointed at both ends

Ecology

Habitat

Sandy, moist soils; disturbed open areas, roadsides, stream edges, lake shores.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Planted for windbreaks and as an ornamental. Provides winter roosting for pheasants and nesting for mourning doves. Birds eat the fruits and squirrels the bark and young branches.

Additional Notes