Elaeagnus umbellataThunb.

autumn olive

WFO wfo-0000663963 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Elaeagnus umbellata, photographed by Derek
fig. a Derek, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-08 / obs. 204410413
Elaeagnus umbellata, photographed by Ian Manning
fig. b Ian Manning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202086561
Elaeagnus umbellata, photographed by gpete
fig. c gpete, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203130445
Elaeagnus umbellata, photographed by Steven Lamonde
fig. d Steven Lamonde, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205767075
Elaeagnus umbellata, photographed by Mark Apgar
fig. e Mark Apgar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201590730
Elaeagnus umbellata, photographed by John Baur
fig. f John Baur, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201554175
Elaeagnus umbellata, photographed by Mark Apgar
fig. g Mark Apgar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201591145
Elaeagnus umbellata, photographed by Ira Gershenhorn
fig. h Ira Gershenhorn, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201605020

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.

Flowering n = 3,131 observations

Peak flowering in May, from 3,131 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 48 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 convexolepidota Hayata
  • Elaeagnus coreana H.Lév.
  • Elaeagnus crispa Thunb.
  • Elaeagnus crispa var. coreana (H.Lév.) Nakai
  • Elaeagnus crispa var. higuchiana Honda
  • Elaeagnus crispa var. longicarpa Uyeki
  • Elaeagnus crispa var. macrocarpa Sugim.
  • Elaeagnus crispa var. parvifolia (Wall. ex Royle) Nakai
  • Elaeagnus crispa var. praematura Koidz.
  • Elaeagnus crispa var. rotundifolia (Makino) Masam.
  • Elaeagnus crispa var. subcoriacea Nakai & Masam.
  • Elaeagnus crocea Nakai
  • Elaeagnus fragrans Nakai
  • Elaeagnus ghuwacen Royle
  • Elaeagnus higoensis Nakai
  • Elaeagnus longipes var. crispa (Thunb.) K.Koch
  • Elaeagnus multiflora var. crispa (Thunb.) Maxim. ex Makino & Nemoto
  • Elaeagnus obovata H.L.Li
  • Elaeagnus oldhamii var. obovata (H.L.Li) F.Y.Lu & C.H.Ou
  • Elaeagnus padifolia K.Koch
  • Elaeagnus parvifolia Wall. ex Royle
  • Elaeagnus parvifolia var. nuda (Servett.) D.Basu
  • Elaeagnus parvifolia var. pedunculata D.Basu
  • Elaeagnus parvifolia var. villosa (Servett.) D.Basu

and 24 more.

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.

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