the.com/seabuckthorn
the thorny shrub that out-vitamins citrus while colonizing cliffs nobody else wants.
means A hardy, spiny shrub bearing tart orange berries prized for their exceptionally high vitamin C and oil content, thriving in poor, sandy, or coastal soils where little else will grow.
from A plain English compound of "sea" and "buckthorn." The "buckthorn" part is the older name, applied to spiny shrubs of the genus Rhamnus and likely meaning a thorn associated with bucks (deer) — a literal "thorn of the buck." "Sea" was tacked on because this particular thorn (Hippophae rhamnoides, not a true Rhamnus despite the name-borrowing) favors coastal dunes and shorelines. Its Latin genus name Hippophae carries its own vivid tale: from Greek roots suggesting "shining horse," possibly because the plant was fed to horses to give their coats a gleam.
- vitamin c
- Up to 15 times more than oranges.
- survival flex
- Thrives in salt, drought, and freezing wind.
- rare oil
- One of few plants packing omega-7.
- soil engineer
- Fixes nitrogen, anchoring eroding slopes solo.
- cosmonaut snack
- Soviet astronauts ate it and slathered on radiation burns.
hippophae rhamnoides — species native to china, tibet, and central asia, commercially cultivated for juice and oil in china since the 1980s