NATIVE RANGE: East Asia (China)

FIRST FINDING IN SLOVENIA: 2006

PATHWAYS: horticulture

POSSIBLE TO FIND: yearround

FLOWERING SEASON: May – July

DESCRIPTION:An evergreen shrub or a multi-stemmed tree. Branches are glabrous with numerous lenticels. Leaves opposite, simple, ovate to lanceolate with acuminate apex. Leaves are stiff, lustrous, dark green above with a narrow yellowish margin, 6 to 8 pairs of lighter green veins and a lighter green underside. Leaf petioles are often reddish tinged, 1–2 cm long. Flowers, small with white tubular corolla, borne in dense erect clusters. Fruits oval or round, blue-black drupes, usually containing two seeds. Fruits persist throughout winter.

HABITAT: Dry and moist forests. In forest edges, but also in open areas and along rivers.

STATUS: A common ornamental plant. In some places naturalised and probably spreading.

SIMILAR SPECIES: : Japanese privet (Ligustrum japonicum) is very similar, but has smaller leaves with 4 to 6 pairs of indistinct veins. Leaves feel thinner and do not have yellowish margins. Petioles are green, 0.6–1.2 cm long. Cherry laurel (Prunus lauroceraus) also has shiny evergreen leaves, but these are alternate, have an obtuse apex and often a serrated margin.

SOURCE: Field Guide to Invasive Alien Species in European Forests