Autumn Olive: Accurate Identification

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- Autumn olive is an invasive ornamental shrub native to Asia.

It was first introduced to North America in the mid 1800s.

The silvery foliage, showy flowers, and colorful berries made it popular in landscaping.

It was also planted extensively in natural areas to provide erosion control, windbreaks, and wildlife food.

Autumn olive is a rapidly growing, multi-stemmed shrub that can reach heights of up to 20 feet and spread 30 feet wide.

Its the leaves are elongated with smooth edges or margins and arranged alternately along the stem.

Each are two to four inches in length with a pale-green upper surface and a white underside due to the presence of silvery scales.

Autumn olive has trumpet-shaped flowers which bloom in the spring and range from white to pale yellow in color.

Each flower is 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in size with four petals arranged in clusters of four to six.

In late summer, clusters of brilliant red fruit emerge, each up to 1/2 in diameter and flecked with silvery scales.

Later in the season, the fruit may darken slightly and appear browner.

When open, they reveal a single seed.

Olive stems are ashy brown, but silvery scales are especially prominent on young stems which sometimes appear gray.

The stems also bear sharp, stout spines.

Autumn olive spreads through seed dispersal primarily by birds.

The fruit persists through fall before drying up and falling off the plant if not consumed.

Unlike many native shrub species, autumn olive matures quickly and can produce viable seeds in as few as three years.

Though abundant, the fruit are of low nutritional value to wildlife in comparison to the native shrub species they often replace.

From the East Coast and as far west as Minnesota, autumn olive is an aggressive invader of roadsides, pastures, abandoned agricultural land, forest edges, and other disturbed habitats.

It is intolerant of dense shade and commonly found on disturbed sites with full to partial sun.

Autumn olive is tolerant of salinity, extreme pH, and heavy metals, traits which enable it to survive or thrive on poor sites, including highway roadsides, mine spoil, and other post-industrial sites.

Autumn olive has one notable lookalike, Russian olive, which is also a non-native invasive shrub that is nearly identical to autumn olive.

Though they have some differences, most notably their green mealy fruit in contrast to the bright mottled red fruit of autumn olive, the species are ecologically very similar and require the same control treatments.

Autumn olive spreads aggressively and grows quickly, enabling it to take over native plant communities.

Be sure to learn how to identify this non-native invasive shrub before applying control measures.