Goumi (Cherry Silverberry)

Elaeagnus multiflora Origin: East Asia Improvement status: Unknown Seeds per packet: 6 BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED Life cycle: Perennial Goumi is the non-invasive cousin of the increasingly ubiquitous Autumn Olive, with bigger, tastier fruit. Native to China, Korea, and Japan, goumi fruit grow on a pretty shrub with olive-like deciduous leaves. The sweet-tart fruit have little-enough astringency when fully ripe to be enjoyed raw out of hand, but their finest use is in making jams, jellies, and other processed products. Goumi wine is fantastic. Interestingly, though it's not a legume, goumi is capable of fixing its own nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing Frankia bacteria.Our friends at the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) have an excellent write-up about goumis on their website, found here [https://www.phillyorchards.org/2021/06/07/spotlight-on-goumi-berry-nitrogen-fixer-extraordinaire/ ], from which the following quotations were borrowed:"Gou