Ligustrum lucidum
Common names
tree privet
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
White, Yellow
Detailed description
Glabrous, small or medium-sized evergreen tree to approx. 10m high, sometimes a dense shrub. Shoots glabrous. Petioles mostly 1~2cm long. Lamina 5~13 x 3~6cm, ovate to elliptic-ovate, glossy above; base broad-cuneate to rounded; apex usu. abruptly short-acuminate, sometimes acute. Panicles up to 25 x 20cm, dense, broadly pyramidal; branches angular; pedicels very short. Bracts oblong or oblong-lanceolate; bracteoles much smaller, caducous. Flowers fragrant. Calyx 1~2mm long; lobes indistinct. Corolla white; tube about 1.5mm long; lobes 2~2.5mm long, oblong-elliptic, reflexed, with generally involute margins, acute. Stamens around 4mm long, exserted; anthers yellow. Style included. Fruit to 6 x 5mm, ellipsoid-oblong, bluish- or purplish-black, usu. pruinose. Seed approx. 5mm long, broadly ellipsoid, ribbed on back. (- Webb et. al., 1988)
Similar taxa
A small to medium sized glabrous, evergreen tree. The plant grows up to 10 metres tall. The leaves are oval, glossy and 5-13 cm x 3-6cm. The flowers are white and fragrant and occur in long panicles. The fruit are bluish or purple-black and are 6 x 5 mm in size.
Habitat
Terrestrial. A plant of coastal and lowland habitats. The plant occurs in sites of low-high fertility. A plant of scrub and forest margins, roadsides, fencelines and open forest communities. A plant of forest, lowland and coastal, forest fragments, shrublands, roadsides, farm hedges, wastelands, domestic garden sites. The plant has naturalised in waste places, margins of remnant forest stands, coastal cliffs and gardens. Areas at risk of invasion by the plant are forests and margins and shrublands.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Oleaceae
Ecology
Flowering
November, December, January, February, March
Year naturalised
1958
Origin
China, Korea
Other information
Poisonous plant
Poisonous purplish-black berries.
National Pest Plant Accord species
This plant is listed in the 2020 National Pest Plant Accord. The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) is an agreement to prevent the sale and/or distribution of specified pest plants where either formal or casual horticultural trade is the most significant way of spreading the plant in New Zealand. For up to date information and an electronic copy of the 2020 Pest Plant Accord manual (including plant information and images) visit the MPI website.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
LIGLUC