Ligustrum

Belongs within: Lamiales.

Ligustrum, the privets, is a genus of shrubs and small trees native to the Old World, though various species have become more widely distributed as a result of being cultivated for hedges.

Characters (from Flora of China): Shrubs or small trees, deciduous or evergreen. Leaves opposite, simple, short petiolate; leaf blade entire. Inflorescences terminal panicles of cymes, rarely lateral. Flowers bisexual, sessile or pedicellate. Calyx campanulate, truncate or 4-toothed, persistent. Corolla white, rotate, funnelform, or salverform, 4-lobed; lobes ca. as long as or shorter than corolla tube, valvate in bud. Stamens 2, inserted at mouth of corolla tube, included or exserted; anthers yellow or sometimes purple, oblong. Ovules 2 in each locule, pendulous. Style shorter than stamens; stigma 2-cleft. Fruit a berrylike drupe with membranous or papery endocarp, rarely drupaceous or loculicidal. Seeds 1-4; endosperm fleshy; radicle short, upward.

<==Ligustrum L. 1753L95
    |--L. arboretumWL10
    |--L. confusumSN88
    |--L. indicumSN88
    |--L. japonicum Thunb. 1784L95
    |--L. lucidumH06
    |--L. nepalenseSN88
    |--L. obtusifolium [incl. L. ibota]LO98
    |--L. ovalifolium Hassk. 1844L95
    |--L. sinense Lour. 1790L95
    `--L. vulgareOP01

*Type species of generic name indicated

References

[H06] Henderson, L. 2006. Comparisons of invasive plants in southern Africa originating from southern temperate, northern temperate and tropical regions. Bothalia 36 (2): 201–222.

[LO98] Lack, H. W., & H. Ohba. 1998. Die Xylothek des Chikusai Kato. Willdenowia 28: 263–276.

[L95] Liogier, H. A. 1995. Descriptive Flora of Puerto Rico and Adjacent Islands: Spermatophyta-Dicotyledoneae vol. 4. Melastomataceae to Lentibulariaceae. Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico.

[OP01] Olmstead, R. G., C. W. dePamphilis, A. D. Wolfe, N. D. Young, W. J. Elisons & P. A. Reeves. 2001. Disintegration of the Scrophulariaceae. American Journal of Botany 88 (2): 348–361.

[SN88] Suzuki, M., & S. Noshiro. 1988. Wood structure of Himalayan plants. In: Ohba, H., & S. B. Malla (eds) The Himalayan Plants vol. 1. The University Museum, University of Tokyo, Bulletin 31: 341–379.

[WL10] Wang, C.-L., F.-C. Lin, Y.-C. Chiu & H.-T. Shih. 2010. Species of Frankliniella Trybom (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from the Asian-Pacific area. Zoological Studies 49 (6): 824–838.