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Russian-olive alternatives
Russian-olive is now classified as a noxious weed
in Colorado. Despite its
generally bad reputation, Russian-olive does have some redeeming qualities
as a landscape or windbreak plant: silvery leaves, fragrant flowers,
drought tolerance, and the ability to grow in poor, infertile or salty
soils. It can grow where site
limitations preclude other trees.
There are few Colorado landscape plants that can duplicate all
these characteristics.
Alternatives to Russian-olive include some related
trees and shrubs:
Autumn-olive is a shrub to small tree with silvery
leaves. It has fragrant
flowers and the edible fruits turn red when mature. Autumn-olive, like
Russian-olive, can have spiny twigs, and is often spread by birds that eat
the fruit. It is not widely
available in Colorado.
Silverberry is a native in Canada, the US Midwest into
South Dakota. It has very
showy silver leaves, fragrant flowers, and fruits similar to those of
Russian-olive. Silverberry is
a shrub that suckers extensively, forming large colonies. It is not widely sold in Colorado,
but has been planted in highway medians.
Seabuckthorn is an Asian shrub or small tree. It has silvery-green leaves
and spiny twigs. Female trees
bear small orange fruits only when male trees are nearby. Fruits are not favored by
birds. Seabuckthorn tolerates
poor, infertile or salty soils.
It is not widely sold in Colorado.
Silver Buffaloberry, a western Colorado native, has
silver leaves and fruits. It
is a very cold-hardy and drought tolerant shrub or small tree. Twigs are thorny; orange yellow
fruits on female plants are small and edible. It is sold in some Colorado
nurseries and garden centers.
Russet Buffaloberry is also native to Colorado. This shrub has green leaves that
are silver on the undersides.
It is not as drought tolerant as silver buffaloberry and prefers
partial shade. Twigs are
spineless; fruit on female plants is bitter. It is sold in some Colorado
nurseries and garden centers.
Salt
tree is not related to Russian-olive. It is a spiny shrub with
gray-green leaves and small attractive lavender flowers. It tolerates poor, infertile or
salty soils, but is not widely sold in Colorado.
For more information, see the following Colorado State Extension fact sheet(s).
For more information, see the following Planttalk
Colorado™ script(s).
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