Sea Buckthorn

Hippophae rhamnoides

Sea Buckthorn

The Sea Buckthorn is a deciduous shrub given it’s name to avoid confusion with the True Buckthorns in the Rhamnaceae family. This belongs to a different plant family, the Elegnaceae and is thought to be native to a wide range of the northern hemisphere from the Atlantic coasts of Europe all the way across to China. The vast majority of Sea Buckthorn can be found growing in China. It is an important food source for many birds and animals and a highly nutritious one at that. It is a dense shrub that can grow anywhere between 1 and 20 feet tall with opposite, lanceolate, silvery green leaves and very thorny branches which make it difficult to harvest the waxy yellow fruits. In Central Asia it grows in semi arid desert like climates and thrives in places where other plants find it difficult to survive. Various parts of the plant including the leaves have been reported in traditional medicinal use, and the fruits have been processed for juice, jams, and liquors for quite some time.