Russian olive

Photo: Katrin Schneider / korina.info — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Survives zone 2 through 7

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Dry and mealy rather than juicy, but genuinely sweet once fully ripe — astringent if picked even slightly early. Eaten fresh once ripe, or made into jelly and preserves.

Hardiness

Zone 2–7

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late summer–autumn

Mature size

Suckering shrub or small tree 5–10 m; container-awkward

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–8.5 (very wide; nitrogen-fixing)

Environment

Semi-arid

Native range

Western and central Asia — southern Russia and the Caucasus through Iran and Central Asia to western China; river valleys, steppe and dry open ground.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

30–60 cm/year — fast, quickly making a dense hedge or screen.

Spacing

400 cm (157 in) apart — about 16 m² (172 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, narrowly lanceolate, 4–9 cm long, light green above with silvery star-shaped hairs and densely silver-scaly beneath — and unlike autumn olive it stays silvery right through to leaf fall.

Root system

Fibrous and widely spreading laterally, and — the point that matters in a planting plan — carrying root nodules of the actinomycete Frankia, so the plant fixes its own nitrogen and feeds its neighbours. Interplanted autumn olive has been measured contributing on the order of 90 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year.

Fruit description

Oval silvery-yellow drupes about 1–1.5 cm long with sweet, dry, mealy flesh over a single large stone; pleasant enough fresh when fully ripe, and traditionally dried or ground into flour in Central Asia.

Propagation

Seed after about 4 weeks warm stratification followed by 12 weeks cold at around 4°C. Half-ripe wood cuttings 7–10 cm with a heel in July–August, or mature current-year wood 10–12 cm with a heel in November, both in a cold frame. Suckers can be lifted where the plant throws them.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated, the small heavily scented flowers worked hard by bees. Cross-pollination between two plants gives the most reliable set; reports on how far a lone plant will crop by itself are inconsistent, so plant two if fruit is the point.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.