Species
+

Elaeagnus commutata Bernh. ex Rydb.

Silber-Ölweide (DE), Silverberry (EN), silverberry, silverberry

Climate known 50 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Elaeagnus commutata, the silverberry or wolf-willow, is a species of Elaeagnus native to western and boreal North America, from southern Alaska through British Columbia east to Quebec, south to Utah, and across the upper Midwestern United States to South Dakota and western Minnesota. It typically grows on dry to moist sandy and gravel soils in steppes, meadows or woodland edges.

Text from Wikipedia, “Elaeagnus commutata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Elaeagnus

Elaeagnus is a genus of about 90 species of flowering plants in the family Elaeagnaceae. Species of the genus are commonly known as silverberry or oleaster.

Text from Wikipedia, “Elaeagnus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Elaeagnaceae
Described by
Bernh. ex Rydb.
Native to
Alaska, Nunavut, Northwest Territories +18
Wild records
1327 in range· 399 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Jul, mean day; nights 12 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
487mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jun 82 mm (CHELSA)
Light
7–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 487 mm a year, wettest June at 82 mm, driest February at 16 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -28.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Elaeagnus argentea Nutt.; Elaeagnus argentea Pursh; Elaeagnus argentea subsp. euargentea Servett.; Elaeagnus argentea subsp. pauciflora Servett.; Elaeagnus argentea subsp. rotundifolia Servett. and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (353 mm of 487 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 12.2 °C against a yearly mean of 3.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 487 mm a year, wettest June at 82 mm, driest February at 16 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

487 mm a year at the habitat, 353 mm of it May to October. Wettest month June at 82 mm, driest February at 16 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 370 mm to 825 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -28.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -28.1 °C, the absolute minimum -44.5 °C, about 201 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -14.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -20.2 °C to -10.1 °C), warmest day 23.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -28.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -6 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul; mean night from -15 °C in Jan to 12 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 487 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 681 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -44.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-60°-40°-20°20°40°frost29.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-44.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 7–41RH 54–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 681 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-6 / -13–-1-3 / -10–23 / -3–711 / 4–1317 / 10–1921 / 16–2323 / 19–2623 / 18–2618 / 13–2010 / 5–131 / -4–3-6 / -11–-2
Night °C-15 / -20–-10-13 / -18–-9-8 / -13–-5-1 / -6–04 / -0–710 / 5–1312 / 8–1512 / 8–157 / 3–101 / -4–3-7 / -12–-4-14 / -18–-10
Rain mm21 / 12–5716 / 11–4823 / 16–5129 / 19–5758 / 34–8782 / 52–11174 / 46–10259 / 38–9148 / 34–9232 / 18–7624 / 15–7321 / 13–61
DLI8 / 4–1115 / 10–1725 / 21–2634 / 31–3639 / 36–4241 / 38–4441 / 35–4535 / 29–3825 / 19–2816 / 11–189 / 5–117 / 3–8
RH %65 / 57–7163 / 56–6959 / 55–6354 / 52–5754 / 52–5755 / 53–5756 / 52–5956 / 51–5956 / 53–6058 / 55–6362 / 56–6665 / 57–70

Each figure is the median across the 681 grid cells holding the 1268 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 785:1281 (50.725, -115.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -44.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -28.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 681 distinct grid cells holding the 1268 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 785:1281 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 50.50_-115.625, lapse-corrected -513 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1331 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlaska, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, California, Utah, Texas· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Greece, Baltic States, Altay, West Siberia, Rhode I., Maryland
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.043, -114.145 · in the densest population, 514 records (39% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1327 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 399 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 354 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 59 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1327 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Elaeagnus commutataElaeagnus commutataElaeagnus commutataElaeagnus commutataElaeagnus commutataElaeagnus commutataElaeagnus commutataElaeagnus commutata

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Rowan Fehr, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kerstin Reifenrath, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Z, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Peter L Achuff, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Elaeagnus commutata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Total Synthesis of (+)‐Elacomine and (−)‐Isoelacomine, Two Hitherto Unnamed Oxindole Alkaloids from Elaeagnus commutata
Claudio Pellegrini, Michael Weber, Hans‐Jürg Borschberg (1996) · Helvetica Chimica Acta
Competitive effects of grasses and woody plants in mixed‐grass prairie
Duane A. Peltzer, Martin Köchy (2001) · Journal of Ecology
Effects of annual burning on grassland in the aspen parkland of east-central Alberta
Howard G. Anderson, Arthur W. Bailey (1980) · Canadian Journal of Botany
New Strategies for the Synthesis of Monoterpene Indole Alkaloids
Hans‐Jürg Borschberg (2005) · Current Organic Chemistry
Effects of shrub coverages on birds of North Dakota mixed-grass prairies
Todd W. Arnold, Kenneth F. Higgins (1986) · The Canadian Field-Naturalist
Responses of obligate versus facultative riparian shrubs following river damming
Stewart B. Rood, Jeffrey H. Braatne, Lori A. Goater (2009) · River Research and Applications
Ecology of Invasive Melilotus albus on Alaskan Glacial River Floodplains
Jeffery S. Conn, Nancy R. Werdin-Pfisterer, Katherine L. Beattie, Roseann V. Densmore (2011) · Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research
Metal accumulation capacity in indigenous Alaska vegetation growing on military training lands
Ryan R. Busby, Thomas A. Douglas, Joshua J. LeMonte, David B. Ringelberg (2019) · International Journal of Phytoremediation
Ultrastructural evidence for the existence of actinorhizal symbioses in the late Pleistocene
Dwight Baker, Norton G. Miller (1980) · Canadian Journal of Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Elaeagnus 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 98 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.