Species
+

Elaeagnus angustifolia L.

Oleaster, Russian Olive, Russian Silverberry, Russian elaeagnus

Climate known 87 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Elaeagnus angustifolia, commonly called Russian olive, silver berry, oleaster, or wild olive, is a species of Elaeagnus, native to Asia and limited areas of eastern Europe. It is widely established in North America as an introduced species.

Text from Wikipedia, “Elaeagnus angustifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Elaeagnus

Elaeagnus is a genus of about 90 species of flowering plants in the family Elaeagnaceae. Species of the genus are commonly known as silverberry or oleaster.

Text from Wikipedia, “Elaeagnus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Elaeagnaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia +27
Wild records
342 in range· 176 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
467mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 53 mm (CHELSA)
Light
6–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 467 mm a year, wettest July at 53 mm, driest February at 30 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -16.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Elaeagnus angustifolia f. culta Sosn.; Elaeagnus angustifolia subsp. orientalis (L.) Soják; Elaeagnus angustifolia var. angustifolia; Elaeagnus angustifolia var. biebersteiniana Kuntze; Elaeagnus angustifolia var. caspica Sosn. and 39 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (341 mm of 467 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 26.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 467 mm a year, wettest July at 53 mm, driest February at 30 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

467 mm a year at the habitat, 341 mm of it May to December. Wettest month July at 53 mm, driest February at 30 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 272 mm to 632 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -16.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -16.9 °C, the absolute minimum -32.7 °C, about 130 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -6.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -17.1 °C to 0.1 °C), warmest day 26.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, without lapse correction; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -1 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -7 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 467 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 286 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -32.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°60°frost39.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-32.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 6–39RH 54–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 286 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-1 / -10–51 / -9–66 / -2–1113 / 10–1820 / 17–2424 / 23–2926 / 24–3126 / 22–3021 / 16–2514 / 8–196 / -2–121 / -8–7
Night °C-7 / -17–0-6 / -17–-0-2 / -10–34 / -1–810 / 6–1415 / 12–1917 / 15–2216 / 13–2111 / 7–176 / 1–11-0 / -9–6-5 / -15–2
Rain mm31 / 14–5330 / 13–5130 / 15–5635 / 19–5342 / 26–6150 / 19–8353 / 14–8042 / 10–6042 / 11–5637 / 16–5139 / 19–5736 / 16–58
DLI8 / 5–1713 / 11–2321 / 19–3130 / 27–3837 / 35–4439 / 37–4638 / 35–4534 / 29–4124 / 20–3415 / 11–259 / 6–176 / 4–14
RH %67 / 56–7365 / 56–7162 / 55–6657 / 52–6054 / 49–5955 / 46–5955 / 46–5855 / 46–5856 / 48–5960 / 52–6264 / 55–6767 / 56–70

Each figure is the median across the 286 grid cells holding the 327 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 870:4577 (46.475, 48.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -32.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 286 distinct grid cells holding the 327 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 870:4577 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 46.50_48.750, no lapse correction (no cell elevation on file).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCentral European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, East Aegean Is., Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Assam, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar· introduced: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Baltic States, Krym, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Madeira, Primorye, Cyprus, Iraq, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Bermuda, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker44.989, 37.247 · in the densest population, 116 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 342 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 176 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 372 km away. 1455 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 342 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Elaeagnus angustifoliaElaeagnus angustifoliaElaeagnus angustifoliaElaeagnus angustifoliaElaeagnus angustifoliaElaeagnus angustifoliaElaeagnus angustifoliaElaeagnus angustifolia

Photographs: (c) Olena V. Vakarenko, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Tamberly Conway, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Elaeagnus angustifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Conservation of riparian ecosystems in the United States
Fritz L. Knopf, R. Roy Johnson, Terrell D. Rich, Fred B. Samson (1988) · Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida)
Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of Elaeagnus angustifolia fruit extract
Abolhasan Ahmadiani, J Hosseiny, Saeed Semnanian, Mohammad Javan (2000) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using Elaeagnus angustifolia L. leaf extracts and their multiple in vitro biological applications
Javed Iqbal, Banzeer Ahsan Abbasi, Tabassum Yaseen, Syeda Anber Zahra (2021) · Scientific Reports
Leaf variations in Elaeagnus angustifolia related to environmental heterogeneity
Marı́a Guadalupe Klich (2000) · Environmental and Experimental Botany
Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia L.): From a variety of traditional medicinal applications to its novel roles as active antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic and analgesic agent
Rafie Hamidpour, Rafie Hamidpour, Soheila Hamidpour, Mohsen Hamidpour (2016) · Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
Antioxidant capacity and functionality of oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia L.) flour and crust in a new kind of fruity ice cream
Songül Çakmakçı, Elif Feyza Topdaş, Pınar Kalın, Hatice Han (2014) · International Journal of Food Science & Technology
Changes in Heavy Metal Accumulation Depending on Traffic Density in Some Landscape Plants
Aydın Türkyilmaz, Hakan Şevik, Mehmet Çetin, Elnaji A. Ahmaida Saleh (2018) · Polish Journal of Environmental Studies
Riparian ecohydrology: regulation of water flux from the ground to the atmosphere in the Middle Rio Grande, New Mexico
James Cleverly, Clifford N. Dahm, J. R. Thibault, D. E. McDonnell (2006) · Hydrological Processes

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Elaeagnus 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 144 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.