FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 617 



86. ELAEAGNACEAE. Oleaster family 



Shrubs or small trees, scurfy-pubescent with stellate hairs; leaves 

 alternate or opposite, simple, the blades entire; flowers small, ape- 

 talous, regular, perfect or unisexual, axillary, solitary or in small 

 clusters; calyx 4-cleft or 4-parted; ovary technically superior but the 

 perianth tube becoming fleshy and closely investing the achene, the 

 whole structure simulating a drupe. 



Key to the genera 



1. Leaves alternate; flowers perfect or polygamous; stamens 4- 1. Elaeagnus. 

 1. Leaves opposite; flowers dioecious; stamens normally 8 2. Shepherdia. 



1. ELAEAGNUS. Oleaster 



A shrub or small tree, up to about 7.5 m. (25 feet) high, often 

 thorny ; leaf blades lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, bright green above, 

 closely silvery -lepidote beneath; flowers pale yellow, very fragrant; 

 fruit oval, yellow, silvery -lepidote. 



1. Elaeagnus angustifolia L., Sp. PL 121. 1753. 



Oak Creek Canyon, southern Coconino County, 5,500 feet {Kearney 

 and Peebles 12208), an escape from cultivation, apparently nowhere 

 naturalized in Arizona. 



Russian-olive, native of the Old World, often cultivated as an orna- 

 mental in the United States. 



2. SHEPHERDIA. Buffaloberry 



Shrubs; leaves persistent or deciduous; flowers dioecious; stamens 

 alternating with as many, teeth of a fleshy disk; fruits globose or 

 ellipsoid. 



Key to the species 



1. Leaves persistent, the blades thick, rounded-oval, ovate, or nearly orbicular, 

 often subcordate at base, not more than 3 cm. long, silvery-lepidote above, 

 densely yellowish or whitish lepidote-tomentose beneath; fruits almost 



globose, scurfy 1. S. rotvxdifolia. 



1. Leaves deciduous, the blades thin, not subcordate at base, up to 5 cm. long; 



truit more or less elongate, not scurfy (2). 



2. Plant somewhat thorny, 1 to 6 m. high; leaf blades oblong, cuneate at base, 



copiously to densely silvery-lepidote on both faces; fruits ovoid-ellipsoid, 



usually scarlet, edible. _ 2. S. abgentea. 



2. Plant not thorny, 1 to 2 m. high; leaf blades elliptic-oblong to ovate, usually 



rounded at base, sparsely lepidote to nearly glabrous above, silvery- 



and rusty-lepidote beneath; fruits ellipsoid, yellowish red, unpalatable. 



3. S. CANADENSIS. 



1. Shepherdia rotundifolia Parry, Amer. Xat. 9: 350. 1875. 



Lepargyraea rotundifolia Greene, Pittonia 2: 122. 1890. 



Navajo, Coconino, and eastern Mohave Counties, 5,000 to 7,000 

 feet, May and June. Southern Utah and northern Arizona. 



Roundleaf buffaloberry. An evergreen shrub commonly about 1 m. 

 high, with silvery leaves and a compact habit of growth, common and 

 even abundant in certain areas and pretty well distributed throughout 

 northeastern Arizona, apparently preferring steep slopes (sides of 

 mesas and badly gullied areas). The ripe fruit contains a sweet, 

 waters', pale yellow juice. 



