FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Opposite branches. Once established, this non-native rapidly colonizes waste areas and wetlands, to the exclusion of many other species. Toxic plant.
Synonym(s): Ligustrum microcarpum, Ligustrum villosum
Description: Evergreen shrub or small tree, often forming dense colonies, to 10 m in height. Twigs and branchlets densely pubescent.
Leaves: Opposite, entire, elliptic or ovate leaves, to 4 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide. Leaf surfaces somewhat dull.
Flowers/Fruit: Small, white, (unpleasantly) fragrant flowers forming panicles. Fruits bluish-black drupes at maturity. Flowers May through June, fruiting soon after.
Habit and Range: Low woods, disturbed wetlands, moist roadsides, floodplain forests, and waste areas throughout the state. One of the worst invasives in the state, along with Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle) and Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass), shading out and eliminating native flora.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
Ligustrum sinense (Chinese privet) leaves are much smaller and less leathery than the taller Ligustrum lucidum (glossy privet), a nonnative which is also highly invasive (uncommon, in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain).
