[3] Species of the genus are commonly known as silverberry or oleaster, Elaeagnus plants are deciduous or evergreen shrubs or small trees.

[3] The alternate leaves and the shoots are usually covered with tiny silvery to brownish scales, giving the plants a whitish to grey-brown colour from a distance.

[4] The genus Elaeagnus was erected in 1754 by Carl Linnaeus, who attributed the name to Joseph Pitton de Tournefort.

Sources differ on the origin of the second part: it may be from ἄγνος, Vitex agnus-castus, the chaste tree,[6] or from the Greek name for a kind of willow.

[12] Elaeagnus species are widely cultivated for their showy, often variegated, foliage, and numerous cultivars and hybrids have been developed.