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Ligustrum obtusifolium Sieb. & Zucc.

Modern name

Ligustrum obtusifolium Siebold & Zucc.

Synonyms

L. ibota Sieb. (1830), nom. nud., not L. ibota Sieb. & Zucc. (1846)

A deciduous shrub, dense with luxuriant leafage but of graceful habit, ultimately 8 to 10 ft high; twigs downy. Leaves oval or slightly obovate, 1 to 2 in. long, 13 to 1 in. wide, always tapered at the apex, glabrous except on the midrib beneath, and on the margins when young. Flowers white, produced in July in terminal, nodding clusters 112 in. long on short side twigs. Calyx bell-shaped, scarcely toothed, usually slightly downy. Corolla 13 in. long. Fruits globose, ultimately black, but at first covered with a purplish bloom.

Native of Japan; introduced in 1860. This privet is a strong and vigorous grower, and when well furnished with its short clusters is distinctly ornamental. But it does not make so good a display here as in countries with a hotter summer. I saw it in the Arnold Arboretum in July 1910, and was much struck with its beauty and grace. As a flowering or fruit-bearing shrub it is at Kew inferior to L. sinense. It is allied to L. ovalifolium, but is distinct in habit and in the downy midrib. Both species have a corolla-tube two or three times as long as the lobes, but ovalifolium is nearly devoid of down.

var. regelianum (Koehne) Rehd. L. regelianum Koehne – This shrub of dense habit, with branches spreading horizontally, was first described from cultivation as a species but merits no more than varietal rank under the variable L. obtusifolium, differing, within this species, by its more pilose stems and leaves. In cultivation it is represented by plants which have been propagated vegetatively and are characterised by their low spreading habit with leaves arranged distichously on more or less horizontal branches.

L. × ibolium Coe ex Rehd. (L. obtusifolium × ovalifolium). – This hybrid, raised in Connecticut about 1910, is intermediate between the parent species. It is particularly useful as a hedge-plant in regions with severe winter conditions, being hardier than L. ovalifolium, which is so commonly used for hedges in Britain.


Genus

Ligustrum

Other species in the genus