Elaeagnaceae

Oleaster Family

Russian Olive

FAMILY: Oleaster family (Elaeagnaceae) – Elaeagnus genus.

SPECIES: Russian olive or Asian silverberry (Elaeagnus angustifolia L.).

TO UTILIZE AS FOOD: Russian olive fruits (drupes) are impressively sweet, but often too astringent to eat raw. Astringency varies from moderate to excessive. Although none of the fruits sampled for this reference were free of astringency, some authors portray the fruits more favorably than the following description. Except for astringency, Russian olives are decent fruits. Trees with access to water produce better-quality fruits than trees on drier ground. Despite the name Russian olive, this tree is not related to olives. However, the fruits are shaped like olives and the tree is native to Russia, as well as other parts of Asia. Prior to maturity, the fruits appear silvery-green. Mature fruits have soft, thin, dusty, yellowish or reddish skins. Each fruit has a modest layer of flesh surrounding a hard stone. Flesh accounts for about half of the volume while stones account for the other half. Stones are dark brown and not reported to be edible. Fresh fruits are moist, but the overall texture is dry, powdery, coarse, and mealy. It’s like “wet sawdust that dries out your mouth.” A sip of water helps alleviate the dryness. Larger fruits tend to be sweeter and less astringent than smaller fruits. Harvesting the ripest, least-astringent fruits should be a high priority. Even the best-quality fruits may require processing, and processing unfortunately eliminates sweetness, calories, and nutritional value along with the astringency. Crumbling the fruits and removing the stones can be accomplished in one step. Cold water is preferable to hot water for processing. Dehydration and grinding yields a bland flour of modest value. Russian olives are lightweight and spongy. Harvesting them is easy, but vicious thorns on the branches can be troublesome. August to November when the fruits are slightly past maturity is the ideal time to harvest. Fruits may persist into winter, but quality declines soon after maturity. One tree can yield astonishing quantities of fruit, and most trees produce a crop every year. Very few trees in the Southwest are so productive. Overall, Russian olives rank as fair-quality fruits, but their astringency is unfortunate.

NOTES: Russian olive was introduced to the United States as a landscaping tree in the late 1800s or early 1900s and eventually became a threat as birds distributed the seeds and those seeds grew into trees that outcompeted native vegetation. It’s especially common along watercourses in the central and western states. New Mexico classifies it as a “Class C” noxious weed, which is the most noxious class. Impenetrable thickets of Russian olive line the banks of the San Juan River in northwestern New Mexico, where I first encountered the tree. Most of the samples were from various places in Utah and Nevada. I struggled to determine whether Russian olive was a friend or foe. It would be shameful for such reliable fruits to be rendered inedible by excessive astringency, but this appears to be a common problem. Most of the fruits I sampled were yellowish rather than reddish, even long after maturity. Despite an underlying sweetness, I wouldn’t describe any of them as pleasant. Soaking and boiling the fruits only washed away the sweetness. Based on the fruits I sampled, Russian olive would be a friend, but not a good friend. Since the amount of astringency varies, I suspect some trees produce fruits even better than the best ones I tried, which would easily account for the more favorable reviews.

Several species closely related to Russian olive have edible fruits, but only one other species, called American silverberry (Elaeagnus commutata), is found in the southwestern United States. This species is native to northern North America. It’s common in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and northward into Canada and Alaska, but it’s rare in the southwestern United States. Since a few isolated colonies of American silverberry occur in the Abajo Mountains of Utah and Lukachukai Mountains of Arizona, it was included in this reference. Fruits of American silverberry were utilized as food by native people of Alaska (Kuhnlein p. 160). Seeds of this species were also eaten (Moerman p. 105). Most accounts describe the fruits rather unfavorably, much as I described those of Russian olive. Another related species called autumn olive (E. umbellata), native to Europe and Asia, is highly invasive in the eastern United States. Fruits of this species are edible, delicious, and more like buffaloberries described in the next genus. Fruits of these related species typically mature in autumn, but they’re of little value to southwestern foragers at this point in time.

IDENTIFICATION: Currently, only 5 species of the Elaeagnus genus are found in the United States and only Russian olive (E. angustifolia) is common in the Southwest. Fruits in Elaeagnus genus are technically achenes enveloped by fleshy hypanthiums, thus seemingly drupe-like or olive-like. Members of the related Shepherdia genus have opposite (rather than alternate) leaves, 8 (rather than 4) stamens, and little red-orange fruits.

Description of Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia): FORM thorny shrub or small tree up to 9 meters tall; LEAVES simple; alternate; deciduous; blades lanceolate, 3-8 cm long; margins entire; surfaces covered with silvery hairs or scales; FLOWERS regular, unisexual or bisexual (polygamous), ovary superior (though appearing inferior), and arranged in axillary clusters; hypanthium tubes silvery-green, cup-like, free from the pistils, and attached below the ovaries; sepals 4, yellow, spreading, and appearing as lobes on the hypanthium tubes; petals 0; pistils, styles, and stigmas 1; stamens 4; FRUITS achenes drupe-like or olive-like (hypanthium tubes becoming fleshy and surrounding the achenes), ellipsoid, often scurfy, silvery to greenish-yellow or reddish-brown; HABITAT sandy washes, riverbanks, margins of lakes, roadsides, and disturbed areas; nearly throughout the United States; blooming May to July. NOTES: American silverberry (E. commutata) differs by having a more shrub-like form and more rounded leaves averaging 3-6 cm long.

REFERENCES: Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia): fruits Couplan (pp. 279-280), Duke (p. 92), Elpel (2002 p. 125), Janick (pp. 338-339), Morgan (p. 223), and Yanovski (p. 46).

Buffaloberries

FAMILY: Oleaster family (Elaeagnaceae) – Shepherdia genus.

SPECIES: #1 silver buffaloberry or rabbitberry (Shepherdia argentea (Pursh) Nutt.). #2 soapberry, bitter, or russet buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis (L.) Nutt.). #3 roundleaf buffaloberry (Shepherdia rotundifolia Parry).

TO UTILIZE AS FOOD: Fruits of species listed above are edible fresh or cooked, and only those species are found in the United States. Considerable differences occur in the flavor. Fresh fruits can be any combination of sweet, tart, bitter, soapy, or other flavors. Soapy flavors come from annoying compounds called saponins. Small amounts of saponins have a cleansing action, but large amounts can cause diarrhea and damage red blood cells. Cooking reduces the saponin content, but sweet sugars are lost in the process. Buffaloberry shrubs are drought resistant, frost tolerant, and winter hardy. Their ability to fix (absorb) atmospheric nitrogen (a crucial element for growth) allows them to thrive in poor-quality soils. They’re also prolific fruit producers that Native Americans relied upon. Pemmican was made from the fruits, buffalo (bison) meat, and various herbs. Buffaloberries were also an item of trade among Native Americans, much as paper currency is used today.

Silver buffaloberry (S. argentea) produces red, reddish-orange, or reddish-brown (russet) berry-like fruits with dotted surfaces. Technically, the fruits are achenes surrounded by fleshy hypanthiums. Prior to maturity the fruits are silvery-green. Fully ripe fruits taste sweet, tart, and faintly tomato-like. The flavor is more fruit-like than vegetable-like. It’s very agreeable and not too soapy. Each fruit contains a single, soft, tan seed inside that doesn’t pose any problems. Stalks remain attached to the fruits as lifelines to the seeds. Washing, rubbing, and rinsing break most of them off. Any stalks eluding removal will be noticeable as bran-like chaff when eating the fruits. The seeds are also bran-like. Fresh fruits are excellent right off the shrubs or added to salads, cereals, or pancakes. Boiling turns the fruits to mush, but doesn’t affect the bran-like aspect. It also forms a cloudy orange broth with a thick layer of foam. With the addition of sugar, this foam has some potential as a dessert topping, but alone it’s not very impressive. Gathering a supply of fruits is tedious because they’re small and guarded by vicious spines. Silver buffaloberries mature in summer nearly throughout the northern Great Plains and Intermountain Region.

Soapberry (S. canadensis) produces red fruits that taste much worse than those of other species, with the flavor usually falling just outside the limitations of palatable. A mere trace of sweetness hides under the predominantly bitter and soapy flavors. Boiling reduces the saponin content, but at the expense of losing sweet sugars in the process. Soapberry fruits are filled, almost to capacity, with tan pits. Fleshy portions are comparably thin. As with other species, the skins have scurfy dots. Gathering a supply of fruits is reasonably easy because soapberry shrubs are thornless. Fruits mature in summer and generally don’t persist into autumn.

Roundleaf buffaloberry (S. rotundifolia) produces reddish-orange fruits that are densely covered with silvery hairs. Prior to maturity, the fruits are silvery-green, scurfy, and well camouflaged against the leaves. Roundleaf buffaloberries are huge compared to fruits of other species, almost the size of grapes. Mature fruits readily detach from the shrubs. Exactly when the fruits mature depends on rainfall and ranges from June to October. Fresh fruits taste sweet, tart, bitter, and similar to the rinds of citrus fruits. They lack the soapy flavor of other species. About half the volume is flesh, while the other half is stone. Actual seeds are chewable, but the shells are hard. Scurfy hairs on the skins greatly diminish the appeal of these fruits by imparting a scratchy irritation. The skins are weakly attached to the juicy pulp. Peeling the skins is possible, but impractical. Scrubbing, boiling, searing, or drying have no effect on the hairs. Eating a few fruits won’t cause injury, but larger amounts may cause itching, burning, or swelling in the throat. Mashing the fruits in water, followed by filtering, is a good processing option. Filtering removes the annoying hairs. In good years, roundleaf buffaloberries can be abundant, but few years are truly good. Profusions of flowers seen in spring are no guarantee that fruits will be produced later in the year. Roundleaf buffaloberry is a dominant shrub of southern Utah, but it’s an erratic wild food of mediocre quality.

NOTES: Buffaloberries were not quite what I expected. After comparing what I’ve read about them to actually eating them, they seem to be overrated. Every species has its good points and bad points, and these points really work against each other. Silver buffaloberries are delicious, but vicious spines hinder the gathering process. Soapberries are easy to gather, but they taste awful. Roundleaf buffaloberries taste good and are easy to gather, but they’re unreliable and covered with irritating scales. Experience has taught me that nothing comes easy. Foraging is plagued with problems that are rarely discussed. I don’t candy coat anything in this book. My intention is to convey an experience rather than make something sound better than what it really is. I actually walked into the wilderness to find these wild foods, so this book is based on firsthand experience. All the buffaloberries I sampled were from Utah or New Mexico. Finding the shrubs was easy, but returning to them when the fruits were ripe was a bit more challenging because I didn’t know when they ripened. Foragers seeking buffaloberries and other wild foods face this problem on a regular basis. The key to solving this problem is to observe how fast the unripe fruits are maturing, and this is done by returning to a location several times until the fruits are ready. Just like flowers serve as signposts that identify things, unripe fruits are signposts that tell foragers where food will be in the near future. Unripe fruits under a canopy of green leaves are easily overlooked by newer foragers, but they can’t hide from skilled foragers. Roundleaf buffaloberries provide a good example of how fruits sometimes try to “hide.” Unripe fruits can also serve as a way to identify things, so their importance should not be underestimated. Although buffaloberries have some issues, two of the three species are definitely better than fruits of Elaeagnus species available in the Southwest, such as Russian olive (E. angustifolia). 

IDENTIFICATION: The Shepherdia genus is represented by 3 species worldwide, all of which are native to North America. All 3 species are dioecious shrubs (having male and female flowers on separate shrubs). Fruits develop from hypanthium tubes (also called perianth tubes) rather than the ovary walls as they do in most fruits. These tubes are narrowly cup-shaped and completely free from the pistils. True fruits are the hard achenes, or “pits,” inside the fleshy hypanthiums. Scattered brown dots covering the various surfaces are flat, scurfy, scab-like scales.

Description of silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea): FORM thorny shrub or small tree about 2-5 meters tall; TWIGS silvery-brown, scurfy in youth; LEAVES simple; opposite; deciduous; blades thin, narrowly to widely lance-oval, and up to about 50 mm long; margins entire; surfaces silvery from a dense covering of scurfy hairs and scales (stellate-lepidote); FLOWERS regular, unisexual, ovary superior, and arranged in axillary clusters; hypanthium tubes scurfy brownish-green, cup-like, surrounding the pistils, free from the pistils, attached below the ovaries, and becoming fleshy in fruit; sepals 4, yellow, spreading, and appearing as lobes on the hypanthium tubes; petals 0; pistils, styles, and stigmas 1; stamens 8; FRUITS drupe-like achenes enclosed by sweet, fleshy, red, ellipsoid hypanthiums, and clustered along the bases of short, bare, lateral branches; HABITAT valleys, fields, and meadows at mid elevations; almost throughout the West; best represented on the northern Great Plains; blooming April to May.

Description of soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis): FORM thornless shrub about 7-30 dm tall; TWIGS silvery-brown and scurfy in youth; LEAVES simple; opposite; deciduous; blades thin, narrowly to widely lance-oval, and up to about 70 mm long; margins entire; lower surfaces silvery from a dense covering of scurfy hairs and scales (stellate-lepidote); upper surfaces green; FLOWERS regular, unisexual, ovary superior, and arranged axillary clusters; hypanthium tubes scurfy brownish-green, cup-like, surrounding the pistils, free from the pistils, attached below the ovaries, and becoming fleshy in fruit; sepals 4, yellow, spreading, and appearing as lobes on the hypanthium tubes; petals 0; pistils, styles, and stigmas 1; stamens 8; FRUITS drupe-like achenes enclosed by bitter, soapy, fleshy, red-orange, ellipsoid hypanthiums, and clustered along the bases of short bare lateral branches; HABITAT woodlands and mountain meadows; northern half of the Southwest and northward into Canada; blooming April to July.

Description of roundleaf buffaloberry (Shepherdia rotundifolia): FORM thornless shrub about 5-20 dm tall; TWIGS silvery-brown, scurfy in youth; LEAVES simple; opposite; evergreen; blades thick, oval-round, and up to about 30 mm long; margins entire and curving under; surfaces densely covered with scurfy hairs and scales (stellate-lepidote); FLOWERS regular, unisexual, ovary superior, and arranged axillary clusters; hypanthium tubes scurfy silver-green, cup-like, surrounding the pistils, free from the pistils, and attached below the ovaries; sepals 4, yellow, spreading, and appearing as lobes on the hypanthium tubes; petals 0; pistils, styles, and stigmas 1; stamens 8; FRUITS drupe-like achenes enclosed by plump, fleshy, scurfy, nearly globe-shaped hypanthiums of various colors (red, orange, yellow, and silver-green), and clustered along the bases of short leafy lateral branches; HABITAT rocky plateaus and mountainsides of southern Utah and northern Arizona; associated with juniper communities; blooming March to September.

REFERENCES: #1 silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea): fruits Couplan (p. 280), Moerman (pp. 243-244), and Ebeling (p. 844). #2 soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis): fruits Couplan (p. 280), Ebeling (p. 844), Moerman (pp. 244-245), and Small (2014 pp. 151-157). #3 roundleaf buffaloberry (Shepherdia rotundifolia): fruits Ebeling (p. 517).