I will give in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oleaster; I will set in the desert the cypress, pine, and box-tree together;
Isaiah 41:19 Darby Bible
we, the faithful, are obligated to care for dirt, but we have not been left without the means to do so. the oleaster family, the Elaeagnaceae, are powerful allies in this task.
these plants grow well in a wide variety of soils and climates. many are quite drought tolerant. some are tolerant of saline conditions. through holy symbiosis with actinomycetes of the genus Frankia, oleasters fix atmospheric nitrogen, thereby enriching the dirt in which they grow.
these attributes recommend the Elaeagnaceae for interplanting with fruit and nut trees. in such a setting, they increase food production and decrease the time before first cropping. planted in saline conditions, appropriate oleasters will add organic material to dirt, allowing other plants to thrive and produce food on land that might otherwise be barren.
further, many oleasters provide delicious and nutritious fruit. these fruits are rich sources of vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, C, and E, and the recently revered carotenoid pigment lycopene, among many others.
oleaster flowers are of benefit to many of our insect allies, including the beloved parasitoid wasps. a few species flower in the Autumn and mature fruit in the Spring, providing much needed nectar for the bugs late in the year and much needed fresh fruit for us early in the year.
armed with formidable thorns, oleasters are a good choice to include in a dense hedge.
for all these reasons, plants of the Elaeagnaceae occupy an important place in many food forests, the holy temples of dirt. they are truly a great boon.
here are a few of the oleasters growing at the pikkumaatila, home of the first church of dirt:
Elaeagnus umbellata, the Autumn olive
Elaeagnus pungens, silverberry
Elaeagnus multiflora, goumi
Hippophae rhamnoides, sea buckthorn
(photograph taken from wikipedia)
an incomplete list of plant species growing at the pikkumaatila can be found here.
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