Species

Ligustrum lucidum

Common Name(s)

tree privet

Family

Oleaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

LIGLUC

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Habitat

Terrestrial. A plant of coastal and lowland habitats. The plant occurs in sites of low-high fertility. A plant of scrub and forest margins, roadsides, fencelines and open forest communities. A plant of forest, lowland and coastal, forest fragments, shrublands, roadsides, farm hedges, wastelands, domestic garden sites. The plant has naturalised in waste places, margins of remnant forest stands, coastal cliffs and gardens. Areas at risk of invasion by the plant are forests and margins and shrublands.

Features

Glabrous, small or medium-sized evergreen tree to approx. 10m high, sometimes a dense shrub. Shoots glabrous. Petioles mostly 1~2cm long. Lamina 5~13 x 3~6cm, ovate to elliptic-ovate, glossy above; base broad-cuneate to rounded; apex usu. abruptly short-acuminate, sometimes acute. Panicles up to 25 x 20cm, dense, broadly pyramidal; branches angular; pedicels very short. Bracts oblong or oblong-lanceolate; bracteoles much smaller, caducous. Flowers fragrant. Calyx 1~2mm long; lobes indistinct. Corolla white; tube about 1.5mm long; lobes 2~2.5mm long, oblong-elliptic, reflexed, with generally involute margins, acute. Stamens around 4mm long, exserted; anthers yellow. Style included. Fruit to 6 x 5mm, ellipsoid-oblong, bluish- or purplish-black, usu. pruinose. Seed approx. 5mm long, broadly ellipsoid, ribbed on back. (- Webb et. al., 1988)

Similar Taxa

A small to medium sized glabrous, evergreen tree. The plant grows up to 10 metres tall. The leaves are oval, glossy and 5-13 cm x 3-6cm. The flowers are white and fragrant and occur in long panicles. The fruit are bluish or purple-black and are 6 x 5 mm in size.

Flowering

November, December, January, February, March

Flower Colours

White,Yellow

Year Naturalised

1958

Origin

China, Korea

Poisonous plant:
Poisonous purplish-black berries.

This page last updated on 5 Dec 2010