Sea Buckthorn Trees

A sea buckthorn branch loaded with vitamin-rich fruits.

Also called sand thorn or swallow thorn, the sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is native to the coastal dunes and mountain slopes from Europe to eastern Asia. Maturing to look like a dense shrub or a small tree, sea buckthorn reaches 10 to 25 feet tall and 10 to 20 feet wide. Plants are either male or female in gender, based on the flowers produced. Only females produce the showy but tiny orange fruits if flowers were pollinated.

Features

Leaves are willow-like and silvery gray-green.

The grayish-brown branches of the sea buckthorn are lined in small thorns. The leaves are gray-green and look like short lines. Silver to bronze scales tend to line both sides of leaf surfaces. In very late winter to early spring, trees bear tiny, rather insignificant flower that are yellow-green. These blossoms occur just before the leaves unfurl from buds. By early fall, female plants displays hundreds of pea-sized orange fruits that then persist well into winter after the leaves drop off. Each fruit is a drupe with acidic flesh surrounding a hard stone seed in the center.

Growing Requirements

Difficult to establish, sea buckthorn becomes a versatile and resilient shrub for seemingly difficult landscape applications. It is both tolerant of cold, heat, drought and sea salt spray. Plant a sea buckthorn where it is to grow, as it resents transplanting. Site it in a full sun location in any moist but well-drained soil that is not acidic in pH. A sandy soil is ideal. If you want fruits, you must plant at least one male among multiple female plants. Sea buckthorn survives in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3b through 8.

Landscape Considerations

Sea buckthorns were traditionally used across Eurasia as hedge thickets, as the mess of twigs and thorns contained livestock. The plants also were used to stabilize soil on rocky hillsides and as a wind buffer along the sand dunes near the sea. Sea buckthorn roots also fixate nitrogen and help enrich marginal soils, according to the U.S. Forest Service. A thicket or row of sea buckthorn also provide adequate food, cover and protection for a wide array of songbirds and rodents. Both the silvery foliage and bright orange berries lend beauty to any mixed shrub border.

A Healthy Fruit

A jar teeming with fresh buckthorn drupes.

The fruits, leaves and bark of sea buckthorn are rich in vitamins E and C, beta-carotene, ulinolenic and oleic acids, omega acids and flavonoids, and are consumed in oil or juice form. Traditionally, the fruits were fed to horses in Greece to keep them healthy and produce a shiny coat. The botanical name, Hippophae rhamnoides, translates from the Greek to mean "shiny horse." In Siberia, the fruit flesh comprised both cordials and jams.

References

• U.S. Forest Service; Hippophae Rhamnoides; Richard T. Busing and Paul E. Slabaugh
• University of Connecticut: Hippophae Rhamnoides
• Purdue University; Evaluation of Siberian Sea Buckthorn Cultivars in Washington State; I.I.Lobatcheva, et al.; 2002

Resources

• National Gardening Association: USDA Hardiness Zone Finder