PLANT PROFILE
The flowers on my wolf willow shrubs have been so profuse and so divinely sweet-smelling in June this year that I’m happy to have this plant in my garden, even though it tends to send up shoots (from stolons) in the vicinity. Since the shoots can be cut down if one doesn’t want a clonal patch, I consider wolf willow, with its silvery foliage and aforementioned perfumed flowers to be a worthy presence in the larger garden or acreage, or as a component of a shrub or tree hedge or border.
It is a tall (to 4 m), deciduous shrub with dark brown stems and lighter brown twigs which, however, are mostly hidden by the dense, silver foliage. The alternate, stalked, ovate-lanceolate leaves, 4-8 cm long, derive their colour from the dense covering of silvery scales on both leaf surfaces.
The flowers are small, 1-1.5 cm, tubular with flaring lobes, and spread outwards in pairs or small clusters of 3-4 beneath the leaves. They consist of a calyx of 4 sepals which are yellow on the inside but covered by silvery tissue on the outside. The fruits are silvery orbs about 1 cm long containing a single seed. Technically, they are drupes, like cherries, with a single stone inside a dry ovary, itself surrounded by dry, mealy tissue. Surprisingly, the fruits are edible and attractive to birds.
Wolf willow occurs in grassland, valleys and roadside banks, and is common in Edmonton’s river valley. It is native to Canada and parts of the northern and western U.S. It is closely related to two Asian species, Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) and autumn olive (E. umbellata). The former is widely cultivated and can be invasive, with the seeds being spread by birds, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem in this part of Alberta. Autumn olive is invasive in the U.S. Neither of these species are, of course, true olives (which belong in the family Oleaceae). The genus Elaeagnus gives its name to its family, Elaeagnaceae.
Incidentally, the flowers on my neighbour’s Russian olive have been even more abundant than the native ones, and equally sweet-smelling. What’s not to love!
