A species of woody plants of the genus Loch (Elaeagnus) of the Loch family (Elaeagnaceae). A shrub or a low tree 3-7 m high, sometimes with thorns.
Young shoots are silver, the rest are gray. The leaves are linear- or oblong-lanceolate, lanceolate-oval or ovate, with petioles, 5-8 cm long, pinnate, narrowed to the base, grayish-green above, silvery-white below from silver scales covering both sides of the leaf.
Flowers up to 1 cm long, very fragrant, solitary, in leaf axils; perianth silvery-white with yellowish veins, yellow inside. The fruit is a drupe about 1 cm long, oval or ovoid-spherical, reddish-yellowish with a silvery-white sweet-powdery edible pericarp.
Blooms in the middle zone in June, in the south in the second and third decades of May. The fruits ripen in August-October. Propagated by seeds, cuttings, layering, is also renewed by growth.
It is very drought-resistant, almost does not suffer from hot dry winds. It is unpretentious to soils. tolerates significant salinity of the soil, successfully grows on chestnut-saline, dark chestnut and light chestnut soils. When the trunk is filled with sand, it forms abundant adventitious roots. It tolerates dust, soot, and gas very well. Very light-loving.
It tolerates shearing well and is therefore quite suitable for hedges, but in this case it needs regular pruning, otherwise it quickly becomes bare from below and grows into a tree. It begins to bloom and bear fruit from the age of 3-5 years.