Survives zone 3 through 7
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 3–7
- Habit
- Shrub
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Late summer, holds into winter
- Mature size
- Dwarf suckering shrub 10–60 cm, spreading into low thickets — much the smallest sea buckthorn
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 5.5–8.5 (very wide; nitrogen-fixing)
- Environment
- Alpine
- Native range
- Native to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and adjacent high Himalaya — China (Qinghai, Xizang), Nepal, Bhutan and northern India — typically found on dry, gravelly or stony riverbeds and floodplains at 3,600–4,700 m, with the species recorded up to about 5,200 m, making it one of the highest-growing woody plants known anywhere.
- Status
- Wild
- Years to fruit
- 2–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow — its dwarf 10–60 cm stature is itself an adaptation to extreme altitude, reducing wind exposure and buffering temperature at ground level
- Spacing
- 100 cm (39 in) apart — about 1 m² (11 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Distinctive among the genus for leaves growing in whorls of three (verticillate), rather than alternate as in H. rhamnoides and H. salicifolia. Leaves are small, linear-oblong, about 1.2–2 cm long and 0.25–0.4 cm wide, densely scaly, with a whitish underside and reddish-brown scales and midrib — noticeably smaller than the leaves of the other two species, matching its overall dwarf, compact stature.
- Root system
- Forms nitrogen-fixing Frankia root nodules and spreads by underground suckers/rhizomes, in keeping with the genus, helping it colonize loose gravel and floodplain soils at extreme altitude.
- Fruit description
- Small berries, roughly 8–11 mm by 6–9 mm, spherical to elliptic, ripening from yellowish-green to orange; reported to have a lemon-like, very acidic flavor when raw. As with other Hippophae, the fruit is oil-rich and high in vitamin C.
- Propagation
- Propagated as for other Hippophae — seed sown in spring after cold stratification, half-ripe cuttings taken in June–July (reportedly the easiest method for this species), hardwood cuttings in autumn, and division of root suckers in winter.
- 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.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Forms nitrogen-fixing root nodules with Frankia, like the rest of the genus, allowing it to establish and spread on the extremely nitrogen-poor, stony floodplain and gravel soils of its native high-altitude habitat without needing fertile ground.
How it spreads. A low, sometimes rhizomatous shrub that spreads by underground suckers to colonize gravelly riverbeds and floodplains, acting as a pioneer species that stabilizes loose alpine soils. No invasive behavior is documented, likely reflecting its narrow ecological niche and extreme habitat requirements.
Growing tips. Among the most cold- and stress-tolerant woody plants known — native up to roughly 5,200 m, where daily temperature swings can reach 20°C, combined with low oxygen, drought, nitrogen-poor soil and intense UV-B radiation; genomic studies point to expanded nitrogen-fixation and DNA-repair gene families as adaptations to this environment. Needs full sun. Naturally a low, dwarf, wind-hugging shrub only about 10–60 cm tall (occasionally to ~80 cm) — markedly more compact than the tree-forming H. rhamnoides and H. salicifolia, an adaptation that shields it from wind and buffers temperature at ground level.
Grow journal
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