Hippophae rhamnoides
| Hippophae rhamnoides | |
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| Common sea-buckthorn shrub in The Netherlands | |
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| Species: | H. rhamnoides
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| Binomial name | |
| Hippophae rhamnoides | |
Hippophae rhamnoides, common sea-buckthorn, is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeagnaceae, native to fixed dunes and sea cliffs in Europe and Asia. It is a spiny deciduous shrub.
Description and Biology
H. rhamnoides can grow 2–4 m (7–13 ft) high. The leaves are alternate, narrow and lanceolate, with silvery-green upper faces. It is dioecious, which means that the male and female flowers grow on different shrubs. The male inflorescence is built up of four to six flowers without petals. The female inflorescence consists normally of only one flower without petals and contains one ovary and one ovule. Male plants need to be planted near the female plants to allow fertilisation and fruit production. The oval or lightly roundish fruits grow in compact grapes varying from pale yellow to dark orange and weighing from 0.2 g to 1 g. The plant has a very developed root system that can maintain the soil on high slopes. The roots live in symbiosis with actinomycetes. This relationship permits fixation of nitrogen from the air. They also transform insoluble organic and mineral matters from the soil to more soluble states. The rhizomes sucker rapidly to produce new colonies.[1]
Taxonomy
The Latin rhamnoides means "resembling buckthorn".[2] As the buckthorns are in a different family, and the common name sea buckthorn can refer to more than one species, it is preferable to refer to this plant by its unique Latin name.
Range
Hippophae rhamnoides is a native plant throughout Europe, including Britain, from Norway south and east to Spain and Asia to Japan and the Himalayas. It is grown as an agricultural plant in Germany,[3] France,[4] Finland, India and China. China is the largest agricultural producer.[5] The origin of the plant is Nepal and it migrated to other parts of Eurasia after the last Ice Age.
It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens and parks. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[6]
Use
The fruits of sea buckthorn are used in a wide variety of products. Due to difficult harvest conditions and long ramp-up time of 6 to 8 years buckthorn is a relatively expensive raw material.
Food
Especially in France (southern Alps) sea buckthorn is commonly sold as fruit juice or as an ingredient in non-alcoholic and alcoholic mixed beverages. Other uses include the berries to be processed as fruit wine or into liquor as well as jam. Buckthorn tea is also made out of the fruits and originates from India.
The fruits have a very high vitamin C content, on average exceeding that of lemons and oranges.[7]
Pharmacological activities
Various pharmacological activities such as cytoprotective, anti-stress, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, radioprotective, anti-atherogenic, anti-tumor, anti-microbial and tissue regeneration have been reported.[8]
Agricultural engineering
Buckthorn is resistant to wind and frost, tolerates salty soils and has a wide-reaching root system. It is often used to stabilize sandy locations and as a pioneering plant on regosols. [9]
Agricultural practices
Plantation
Sea buckthorn is normally planted (seedlings) or sowed in spring. Sea buckthorn needs an adequate level of nutrients to produce a good yield and fruits of good quality. It responds well to phosphorus.[1] The yield depends on the exposition to light as sea buckthorn doesn't like shadow. Therefore it is important to plant shrubs with distances between them. Plants are normally planted with 1 to 1.5 meters in rows that have 3 to 6 meters between each other. The density of the plantations varies from 500 to 3300 plants per hectare.[1]
Plant protection
Relatively few diseases and insects are important on sea buckthorn but the followings are reported:
The disease Verticillium wilt caused by Verticillium albo-atrum and Verticillium dahliae is widespread where sea buckthorn is cultivated. The disease appears on trees 5 to 8 years after plantation. The infected fruits mature prematurely, dry up and shrivel. Infected trees should be dug out and burned. For 3 to 5 years sea buckthorn should not be planted at the same place. Fusarium wilt is another important disease in sea buckthorn. Fusarium spp. seems to only attack rotting and dying plants. Infected branches should be cut and burned.[10]
There are also insects affecting sea buckthorn as aphids, thrips, two-spotted mites and earwigs. The gall tick, the leaf roller, the gypsy moth and the commashaped scale also cause damages to sea buckthorn.[10]
The most damaging insect is the sea buckthorn fly. It penetrates the fruits and eats the flesh. The fruits are then unacceptable for use.[10]
Weed control
Weed control is very important especially during the early growth stages. Sea buckthorn grows slower than weeds because it has a less vigorous root system. Weeds should be removed before planting and then controlled during the first 4 or 5 years. Mechanical and hand cultivation are both used for weed control. The cultivation should not be too deep not to damage the roots of sea buckthorn. [10] (Does sea buckthorn have a fibrous root system? If so, you could include this information in this part)
See also
- Sea buckthorn oil
- Wolfberry, another medicinal plant that is often mistaken for Sea-buckthorn
- Hippophae
References
- ^ a b c Rousseau, Hélène (2002). Développement des techniques de reproduction végétative et essais de cultivars d'argousiers. Québec: Institut de recherche et de développement en agroenvironnement. pp. 1–12. ISBN 2-922851-16-8.
- ^ RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 1405332964.
- ^ Information on cultivation of buckthorn in former East Germany (German)
- ^ Information on cultivation of buckthorn in Franche (fr)
- ^ Information on cultivation of buckthorn in China (fr)
- ^ http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=963
- ^ Comperative Study of Vitamin C contents in fruits and medicinal plants J.Chem.Soc.Pak.,Vol 30, Nr. 3, 2008 (pdf-file)
- ^ Geetha Suryakumar, Asheesh Gupta, "Medicinal and therapeutic potential of Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.)", Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Volume 138, Issue 2, 18 November 2011, Pages 268-278, ISSN 0378-8741, 10.1016/j.jep.2011.09.024. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874111006945)
- ^ Information on growing sea buckthorn from the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association
- ^ a b c d Thomas, S.C. Li (2003). Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) : Production and Utilization. Canada: National Research Council of Canada. ISBN 0-660-19007-9.
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