Plant portrait - Hippophae salicifolia

When we first moved to Cornwall, one of the first plants I put out was a small group of Hippophae salicifolia. They were about 60cm tall and looked rather lost in the middle of this large empty field. A month later, the rabbits had done their worst and each of the plants had lost most of their bark. I thought that this was the death-knell for them, but put some protection around them just in case.

Along came the spring and the plants grew away as though nothing had happened to them. By the end of their first summer they were about 1.5 metres tall and looking wonderful. They have managed to keep up this same rate of growth in subsequent years and the largest is now over 6 metres tall and really looking like a tree. The plants have been impervious to the frequent strong winds we get here and have also been unaffected by droughts or exceedingly wet weather.

They also look quite beautiful. Of a very uptight habit, their deciduous leaves have a somewhat silvery hue and look rather like the leaves of a willow tree. They fruited for the first time this year. Two of the three plants have turned out to be female and the other is a male (what wonderful luck) and one of the females had a particularly heavy crop.

The fruit is rather small, about 3mm in diameter, and is very fiddly to harvest. It is carried right next to the branches and these branches are often armed with large thorns. The fruit itself tastes like a sharp lemon, which is not to everyone's taste raw. Our 16 month old son loved it and ate it in quantity. He was frequently asking us to pick it for him. If you cannot stomach much of it raw, the fruit makes a superb juice or can be cooked to make jams and other preserves. What makes this fruit rather special is that it is quite possibly the most nutritious fruit that can be grown outdoors in Britain. It is very rich in vitamins (especially C) and minerals and also contains essential fatty acids. These fatty acids have been shown to prevent cancer when taken as part of the diet and experiments in Sweden are indicating that they can be used in treating cancer. A superb lotion for treating burns can be made from the fruits and also from the young twigs. This lotion is said to prevent scarring.

The tree is very vigorous and also enriches the soil with nitrogen. It has a very vigorous root system and has been planted on steep slopes to stabilize the soil. It also produces suckers freely so is not a plant to grow in a small space. If you have room for it, however, then it is a very worthwhile plant to grow. It needs a position in a well-drained soil with at least a reasonable amount of sun, but apart from that it is not really fussy.

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Plant portrait - Hippophae salicifolia

Rich Sun Feb 11 14:09:02 2001

Another page with info on this plant can be found at http://www.doityourself.com/garden/fruits/seaberry.htm

Hippophae salicifolia

Ciro Tue Jan 3 2006

Goji Berry very , very, worth while

Hippophae salicifolia

Ciro Tue Jan 3 2006

Goji Berries Very, very worth while

Hippophae salicifolia

Áèðþêîâà Îëüãà Mon Apr 10 2006

Dear Sirs! Our company deals with the processing of berries. We would like to introduce you our production. Natural sea buckthorn oil: The oil is obtained from pulp of sea buckthorn berries. The company is equipped with up-to-date machinery. During the production we use the progressive technologies. In our production we don't use the extraction method and any chemical species. Due to such technique, we obtain natural (100%) sea buckthorn oil. The oil has bright, orange-red colour and specific (characteristic for sea buckthorn oil) flavor. Pack: Aseptic bag-in-box (capacity - 200 liters) Natural sea buckthorn juice: The juice is obtained through pressing from fresh sea buckthorn berries. It is subject to soft cooking. The juice has bright, orange colour and well-expressed, natural flavor and sweet-sour taste. Contents: Content of dry substances is about - 7-10 Brix. Content of organic acid is about - 1.8-2.5% Vitamin B,A,C,E,K,PP complex, microelements and flavonoids. Pack: Aseptic bag-in-box (capacity - 200 liters) Sea buckthorn pip is dried out at temperature 30Cº. It is the raw material for producing the cosmetic oil from the pip. Pack: bag (25 kg) Dried sea buckthorn pulp is the raw material for production of oil by the extraction method. We are ready to discuss the delivering of all the above mentioned production and also the juice and dried pulp from blackberry, and snowball berry, red and black ash berry and other berries, including wild growing ones. We search reliable partners/ 656008 Russia, Altai territory, Barnaul Zagorodnaya Street, 129 Tel: +7-3852-65-03-59 Fax: +7-3852-39-83-32 e-mail: oil-@bk.ru Olga Birukova

Hippophae salicifolia

Ben Stallings Thu Feb 22 2007

Please state in your article that Sea Buckthorn is unrelated to the common buckthorn that has proven to be a terribly invasive species in North America and costs millions of dollars to eradicate. Otherwise people may read your article and plant common buckthorn thinking it is useful, or worse, they may dismiss your organization as harmful because they have heard bad things about "buckthorn." Thank you!

Wikipedia entry on "buckthorn" (not sea buckthorn)

Hippophae salicifolia

Ken Fern, Plants for a Future. Mon Feb 26 2007

Ben's post gives the reason why we always stress the botanical name of a plant, rather than using common names. The buckthorn he is referring to is actually a number of different European species in the genus Rhamnus. These have become extensively naturalised in N. America and have been declared noxious weeds. They should, under no circumstances, be planted out in that country. They are also slightly toxic, quite unlike the fruits of sea buckthorn which are both very nutritious and edible. It is very important, when identifying any plant, to use the botanical name or mistakes such as Ben refers to could all to easily happen.

Hippophae salicifolia

jim Thu Apr 23 2009

well done

Tibetan Goji Berries Goji Berries

Hippophae salicifolia

jim Thu Apr 23 2009

well done

Tibetan Goji Berries Goji Berries

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