willow-leaved sea buckthorn

Photo: A. J. T. Johnsingh, WWF-India and NCF — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Survives zone 5 through 8

Harvest calendar

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

⚠ Intensely acidic — not for fresh eating; juice, oil and syrup. Very high vitamin C.

Hardiness

Zone 5–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late summer, holds into winter

Mature size

Suckering tree 10–15 m — much the largest sea buckthorn

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–8.5 (very wide; nitrogen-fixing)

Environment

Montane

Native range

Restricted to the Himalaya — from Xizang (Tibet) in the north through Bhutan, Nepal and the Indian Himalaya (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh) — growing in dry river valleys and on rocky, sandy hill slopes at roughly 1,500–4,500 m (up to about 10,000 ft). Introduced into Western cultivation in 1822.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Grows quickly while young but takes a long time to reach full size — commonly cited as reaching its ultimate height of 12 m or more only after 10–20 years, eventually forming a small tree to about 15 m (some wild high-altitude forms stay under 1 m).

Spacing

350 cm (138 in) apart — about 12 m² (132 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Leaves are linear-oblong, roughly 2.5–7.5 cm long and up to about 1 cm wide — broader than H. rhamnoides and the reason behind the 'willow-leaved' common name. The upper surface is dull green rather than silvery, and the underside is covered in a greyish-white felt (rather than silvery scales) with a brown midrib — the clearest field difference from H. rhamnoides.

Root system

Extensive and vigorous, suckering freely once established and carrying nitrogen-fixing Frankia root nodules like the rest of the genus — useful for stabilizing soil on the steep, dry Himalayan slopes it grows on naturally.

Fruit description

Berries are pale yellow to yellow-orange, distinctly less vivid than the orange-red fruit of H. rhamnoides, ripening from late summer into mid-winter. Raw fruit is sharply acidic, mellowing after frost or cooking; oil content in the fruit is reported up to about 9.2%, similar to other Hippophae species.

Propagation

Propagated the same way as other Hippophae — seed with several weeks of cold stratification, half-ripe cuttings in June–July, hardwood cuttings in autumn, root-sucker division in winter, and layering in autumn; air-layering has also been specifically trialled and documented for this species. As a dioecious species, named selections such as the male cultivar 'Robert' or the widely planted street tree 'Streetwise' are propagated vegetatively to keep sex and habit true.

Pollination

DIOECIOUS — needs male and female plants

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.