Autumn-olive

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Autumn-olive bark

Autumn-olive

Autumn-olive habit

Autumn-olive

Autumn-olive leaf

Autumn-olive leaf

Autumn-olive flowers

Autumn-olive

Autumn-olive twig

Autumn-olive habit

Autumn-olive bark

Autumn-olive inflorescence

Autumn-olive flowers

Morphology

Trunk

Stems ascending to erect; young branches armed with thorn-like lateral branches, older branches unarmed; bark gray to reddish brown, fissures shallow, exfoliating in long strips; wood light brown, hard.

Twigs

Young twigs gray to grayish brown, flexible, densely lepidote, older twigs gray to grayish brown, flexible, sparsely to densely lepidote; leaf scars half-round; buds silver-brown, ovoid, .1 to .14 inch, apex acute, densely lepidote.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole 0 to .3 inch, lepidote; blade elliptic to oblanceolate or lanceolate, 1 to 4 inches long, .4 to 1 inch wide, base cuneate to rounded, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute, lower surface silver, lepidote, upper surface dark green to light green, glabrate or sparsely lepidote.

Flowers

Inflorescences axillary on new growth, umbel-like clusters, (1-)2-8-flowered; peduncles absent; pedicels .08 to .24 inch. Flowers bisexual, sometimes functionally unisexual, radially symmetric; hypanthium white to yellowish white, funnelform, .28 to .3 inch; sepals 4, connate proximally, lobes white, fading yellowish white, triangular, .14 to .16 inch; petals absent; stamens 4, adnate to hypanthium, exserted; pistil 1; style .2 to .28 inch.

Fruit

August-October; drupe-like achenes, red to pink at maturity, ovoid, .24 to .3 inch long, .12 to .16 inch wide, fleshy, juicy, sweet; seed 1, yellowish brown with darker longitudinal stripes, ovoid to ellipsoid, .16 to .2 inch long, .1 to .12 inch wide, slightly longitudinally ribbed.

Ecology

Habitat

Dry to moist forests and woodlands, sandy clearings, and disturbed areas.

Distribution

East 1/3 of Kansas

Additional Notes