Ligustrum quihoui Carrière

Waxy leaf privet

Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

Waxy leaf privet is an introduced semi-evergreen shrub in the Olive family (Oleaceae). It is native to China. In Alabama it has been collected from the Black Belt region in the central part of the state. It is sometimes cultivated and escapes to fence rows, vacant lots, and disturbed woodlands. It is also used as a rootstock for grafting other Ligustrum species, Syringa, and Osmanthus. It may “appear” from root sprouts around these cultivated species. Waxy leaf privet is a shrub reaching 9 feet in height. The young twigs are roundish, green or tan in color, and puberulent. The bark of older limbs and the trunk is smooth and tan-gray in color. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, entire, and lanceolate, elliptic, or obovate in outline. The upper side of the leaf is smooth and the midvein on the lower surface is pubescent. Each leaf has 2-5 pairs of lateral veins. Flowers are produced in subsessile verticil-like clusters in terminal panicles. The fragrant flowers are white to cream colored, but the pollen is a severe allergen. The calyx is glabrous and the corolla has four lobes, about as long as the tube. The fruit is a blue-black drupe. Waxy leaf privet fruit are consumed by many species of birds during the winter months, and the seed are deposited over a wide area.—A. Diamond.

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Not Native

CHINA