June 7,   Webb State Park, Weymouth
Russian olive actually is not a native of Russia: its motherland is the Caucasus and Central Asia, though it used to be commonly planted in the European Russian forest-steppe belt as a gully-fixer and nectariferous plant. Known to be invasive in other East Coast states, Russian olive has not been seriously claiming any land in Massachusetts, or at least not in eastern MA today. All persisting old plantings (or spontaneous trees) that we have observed were at the ocean front.