slgwv's photos with the keyword: Russian olive

Trail along Marysville Creek, originally a jeep road, which has been a foot path for years and is now seriously overgrown. (Google still shows it as a road. Google is wrong!) Two of the more obnoxious overgrowing plants are seen here: Russian olive (exotic, with the pale gray-green leaves), and roses (native, with the darker green leaves and red fruiting bodies). Both have big thorns, which inspired the following bit of doggerel: Roses are thorny; Russian olives are too. We're bound to get bloody As we push our way thru! And we did--but a friend of ours says you must always leave some blood on the mountain on an excursion, otherwise you weren't pushing hard enough! Not sure I agree--

Russian olive ( Elaeagnus angustifolia ) on Eldorado Creek, outside Dayton, Nevada. (It's the tree in the center with thin greenish-gray leaves.) These trees had already been imported as ornamentals and for slope stabilization by the late 19th century--we even have some in our yard--but have since become another notorious invader weed. They tend to crowd out the native willow and cottonwood in these drainages. Of course, as usual they were introduced with The Best of Intentions--