elaeagnus umbellata


autumnberry

autumnberry

Red berry clusters, pointy long oval leathery leaves with silvery underside. Silvery spots on berries and leaves. Almost 20 times more lycopene than tomatoes (good for prostate). Looks like red shiny berry, not “olive”. Somewhere between shrub and tree, with gnarly trunk, branches have thorns. Yellow white flowers. Berries are green through summer, until fall, when they turn orange, then red. Each berry contains one yellow-tan seed with lines running along its length. Related to Buffalo-berry. Berries are ready to eat when they pop off the branch easily. They are less tart the longer they ripen. Can be eaten straight from the bush. Don’t eat seed pits.