Elaeagnus commutataBernh. ex Rydb.

Wolf-willowsilverberry

WFO wfo-0000663703 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Elaeagnus commutata, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. a Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 205959081
Elaeagnus commutata, photographed by Pavel Komkov
fig. b Pavel Komkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198119362
Elaeagnus commutata, photographed by F Quiec
fig. c F Quiec, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 199918440
Elaeagnus commutata, photographed by Caleb Catto
fig. d Caleb Catto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155804911
Elaeagnus commutata, photographed by Alec McClay
fig. e Alec McClay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 151234270
Elaeagnus commutata, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. f Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 149098386
Elaeagnus commutata, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. g Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 149502476
Elaeagnus commutata, photographed by Liam Steele
fig. h Liam Steele, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145663794

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Elaeagnus commutata is native: Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Manitoba, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Yukon AlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoManitobaMinnesotaMontanaNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTexasUtahWashingtonWyomingYukon
Native distribution of Elaeagnus commutata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Manitoba MAN
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 215 in flower of 475 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Elaeagnus commutata observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 215 of 475 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 11 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Elaeagnus argentea Pursh
  • Elaeagnus argentea Nutt.
  • Elaeagnus argentea subsp. eu-argentea Servett.
  • Elaeagnus argentea subsp. pauciflora Servett.
  • Elaeagnus argentea subsp. rotundifolia Servett.
  • Elaeagnus argentea subsp. sinuosa Servett.
  • Elaeagnus argentea var. elongata Servett.
  • Elaeagnus argentea var. maxima Servett.
  • Elaeagnus glabra K.Koch
  • Elaeagnus veteris-castelli Lepage
  • Shepherdia argentea Schltdl.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.