Sea buckthorn

Family

Elaeagnaceae

Habit

Shrub

Height

6 m

Spread

6 m

Growth

medium

Lifespan

35 years

First yield

after 4 years

Yield in cultivation

up to 5 t/ha

Energy yield

40 kcal per m² a year

Hardiness

zone 3–7

Shade tolerance

full sun

Soil

Sand, Silt, Loam

Soil moisture

very dry – very wet

pH

6 – 8

Times apply to the northern hemisphere in a temperate climate and shift with altitude and cultivar.

Edible: Fruit can be consumed raw or cooked and is a good source of vitamin C and vitamin A. While some may find them too sour when raw, children generally enjoy them. Fruit is commonly juiced for its vitamins and pleasant aroma. It is known for its health benefits and is often mixed with other fruits for juice production. Certain species and varieties have a high oil content of up to 9.2%. The small fruits, about 6-8 mm in diameter, are abundantly produced along the stems. They lose some of their sourness after frost or when cooked. Ripe fruits are available from late September and typically remain on the plants throughout winter unless eaten by birds.

Medicinal: Anodyne, antidote, diuretic, and fever reducer. The root juice effectively counteracts arsenic poisoning and has a historical use in cancer treatment. Root extracts show antitumor properties, while a tea from boiled roots acts as a diuretic.

Other uses: Beyond its fruit, sea buckthorn is above all a pioneer shrub with practical uses. Through its root nodules it fixes atmospheric nitrogen in symbiosis with actinomycetes and so enriches raw, nutrient-poor ground; together with its far-reaching, suckering root system this makes it the standard plant for stabilising embankments, dunes, railway banks and spoil heaps. On former mining land and raw soils it is one of the few woody plants that will establish without ground preparation. As a hedge, its strong thorns and dense branching build an impenetrable barrier within a few years, one that needs little cutting but is also hard to keep within bounds. The seeds contain twelve to thirteen per cent of a slow-drying oil; the vitamin-rich juice is processed in cosmetics. The fruit yields a yellow dye, the bark and roots a darker one. The foliage was formerly used as sheep fodder.

Sea buckthorn lives in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing actinomycetes, visible as nodule-like structures on the roots — nitrogen fertiliser is therefore unnecessary, and the symbiosis develops best on well-aerated sandy soils. It demands full sun and tolerates neither shade nor heavy, compacted or waterlogged ground. The main roots reach down some three metres, and the shrub throws abundant shallow suckers that emerge up to ten metres from the parent, so a single plant soon becomes a thicket and a root barrier is advisable. Pruning decides the crop: leaves and fruit form only on the previous year's growth, so unpruned bushes go bare and die back inside and carry fruit only at the periphery. Regular renewal is therefore essential.

Because sea buckthorn is dioecious, the method of propagation determines the crop: seedlings reveal their sex only after years, so fruit growing relies entirely on vegetative propagation — hardwood and softwood cuttings, root cuttings, or the abundant suckers, which can be severed and moved. Buy named female cultivars plus at least one male as pollen donor; one male serves roughly six to eight females and should stand upwind, since pollination is by wind. Sowing matters only in breeding and requires a cold period over winter.

Sea buckthorn is wind-pollinated and correspondingly unimportant for flower visitors — its inconspicuous flowers open before the leaves and offer no nectar. Its value lies in fruit and structure: the orange berries hang into winter and are an important food source for thrushes, blackbirds and passing migrants at a time when little else is available. The thorny, densely branched thicket gives small birds almost inaccessible nesting cover. Ecologically notable too is its nitrogen fixation through root symbiosis: sea buckthorn prepares raw ground and creates conditions for later species — on coastal dunes and river gravels it is a classic pioneer.

Special features: drought, salt, and sea wind tolerant; forms runners!; at least 1 male to 6 female plants; fruit ripens from mid-summer to late autumn, depending on the variety; fruits hang all winter; a symbiosis with bacteria producing vitamin B12 is said to develop on the outer skin of the fruit; Hippophae salicifolia is better suited for heavier soils.

Eurasia: coasts and mountains from western Europe to Central Asia. Sea buckthorn occupies a widely spread range reaching from the Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic coasts across the Alps and Carpathians into Siberia, Mongolia and the Himalaya. Within it the shrub favours two very different habitats: the dunes and cliffs of sea coasts, and the gravel and shingle flats of mountain rivers. In Germany the natural occurrences lie on the Baltic coast and the North Sea islands as well as in Alpine valleys; inland it appears as a planted or escaped species. Breeding work was carried out mainly in Russia, the origin of most large-fruited cultivars.

Sea buckthorn is a pioneer of open, lime-rich raw soils with two clearly separated strongholds: the dunes, shingle ridges and cliffs of sea coasts, and the gravel and shingle beds of mountain rivers and their shifting reaches. Both are sites that are reworked regularly and carry almost no humus. That is exactly what it is built for: nitrogen fixation through its root nodules makes it independent of soil fertility, deep roots reach water, and suckers colonise freshly torn-open ground. It is decidedly light-demanding and salt-tolerant, but will not take shade. That also describes its fate: where succession continues, it is overgrown by willows, birches and pines and disappears. Lasting stands exist only where wind, waves or floods keep the ground open again and again.