Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Waxyleaf Privet - Ligustrum quihoui   Carriere
Members of Oleaceae:
Members of Ligustrum with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Scrophulariales » Family Oleaceae
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AuthorCarriere
DistributionMostly in the northern Piedmont; also Buncombe County. Although cultivated as far back as 1897, the first "wild" collection was in 1969 in Rockingham County. Specimens from Buncombe, Granville, and Wake counties were all collected between 2001 and 2016. Specimens from Mecklenburg and Orange counties were from cultivated plants.

Native of China; in N.A. MD to FL, TX, OK, AR.
AbundanceVery rare.
HabitatRoadside thicket, woodlot on diabase glade, bank above creek, volunteer at edge of yard. This is a troublesome exotic in recent years, and has impacted several very rare natural communities -- Diabase Glades -- in the Butner area in Granville County. The populations in those areas have many adult plants and abundant seedlings; eradication efforts have been somewhat effective, but this plant needs to be removed wherever found.
PhenologyFlowering May-July.
IdentificationWaxyleaf Privet is usually a lanky, tall evergreen shrub that may exceed 15 feet, with branches rather slender and spreading/drooping. The shiny and dark green leaves are narrowly lance-shaped and short-tapered to both ends. The inflorescences of numerous small white flowers are terminal and in upper leaf axils, elongate, the pairs of branchlets well-spaced and shallowly curved.
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State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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