Plant Family: Oleaceae
Growth Form: Densely-branched shrubs to 4 meters high.
Leaves: Opposite, simple, elliptic, dark green, apex pointed or blunt, up to 8 cm long; turning dull greenish-yellow in autumn.
Bark: Gray-brown with warty lenticels.
Flowers: Small, white, tubular, fragrant, held in open panicles at the branch ends, June to August.
Fruits: Hard blackish berries that hold one or two seeds, Sept. into winter; eaten by birds, who are the primary seed dispersers.
Habitat: Used singly in landscaping or often trimmed into hedges, spreading to roadsides, old fields, thickets.
Range: Mostly Massachusetts south, reported in the wild from a few counties in northern New England.
Key Features: The open panicles of fragrant white flowers seen in mid-summer, and blackish berries at the branch ends in autumn, are both good field marks.
Comments: Ligustrum is a genus of approximately 50 species that are native to Eurasia; several are in cultivation in North America.
