Forestiera acuminata (Michx.) Poir.

Eastern Swamp Privet

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Eastern Swamp Privet is a native deciduous shrub in the Olive family (Oleaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Eastern Swamp Privet occurs on the floodplains of large rivers in areas subject to prolonged flooding. It is a large shrub or small tree. Young stems are slender, glabrous, gray or light brown in color, with round white lenticels and U-shaped bundle scars. Older stems and the trunk have thin, gray, warty bark. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, obovate to rhombic in outline, with entire or serrate margins. The leaves taper to a long tip. Eastern Swamp Privet is either dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants) or monoecious with separate male and female flowers on the same plant. The flowers occur at the leaf scars along the stem and are produced before the leaves emerge in the early spring. The flowers lack petals and sepals. The conspicuous male flowers are sessile with yellow anthers. The female flowers are in short panicles and are greenish and inconspicuous. The fruit is a purple-black drupe. The fruit of Eastern Swamp Privet is consumed by birds and small mammals. It is sometimes available from native plant nurseries. It requires saturated soils and will not tolerate drying out. It is sometimes used for streambank stabilization and restoration—A. Diamond.

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Native OBL (NWPL)

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