Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Border Privet - Ligustrum obtusifolium   Siebold & Zuccarini
Members of Oleaceae:
Members of Ligustrum with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Scrophulariales » Family Oleaceae
AuthorSiebold & Zuccarini
DistributionMostly in the Mountains; also Mecklenburg, Orange, and Durham counties in the Piedmont. The website editors have not double-checked specimens to see if any belong to infraspecific categories; all were simply determined as L. obtusifolium.

Native of Japan; in N.A. ME to MI and NE, south to FL and TX; also WA. NOTE: this range includes all infraspecific taxa.
AbundanceRare.
HabitatEdge of woods, floodplain woods, stream banks, river mouth.
PhenologyFlowering May-June.
IdentificationAmong the smaller-leaved species of privet, this one has inflorescences broadly cylindric to pyramidal (narrowly cylindric in L. quihoui). The corolla tube is 1.5-3 times longer than the lobes (vs. less than 1.2 times in L. sinense and L. vulgare). The abundant L. sinense has much larger terminal inflorescences (with many more flowers). It differs subtly from var. suave -- see the key in Weakley (2018).
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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