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.
Read more about this topic: Hippophae Rhamnoides
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