5472.000 Elaeagnus L.

Shrubs, sometimes climbing, or small trees; sometimes spiny. Leaves alternate, petiolate, lamina margins usually entire. Inflorescence has flowers clustered on short axillary shoots, or sometimes solitary. Calyx tubular, 4-lobed, constricted above ovary, breaking at constriction as fruit develops; lobes usually spreading, deciduous, white or yellow inside. Fruit drupes, globose or ellipsoid, rarely longitudinally winged. Seed usually 8-ribbed.

Worldwide: 90 species in Asia, Southern Europe and North America.

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon.