Japanese Privet

Plant: Single plant or thicket-forming shrub, opposite evergreen leaves, hairless leaves and stems, with a spreading canopy up to 20 ft (6 m) tall, similar to Chinese privet except larger, from rootsprouts.

Stem: Twigs pale green becoming brownish to reddish tinged, not hairy, branches opposite and brownish gray with many raised corky dots (lenticels), bark light gray and smooth except for horizontal, discontinuous ridges.

Leaves: Evergreen and leathery, opposite, ovate, 2-4 in (5-10 cm) long and 1-1.8 in (2.5-4 cm) wide, rounded base and blunt or tapering tips often with a tiny sharp tip at end, margins entire and light green to reddish tinged, black-green above with light green mid- and lateral veins and light-green beneath, petioles 0.4-0.8 in (1-2 cm) long, light green and sometimes reddish tinged.

Flowers: Apr-Jun. Loosely branching, conical clusters of many small flowers, terminal and upper axillary, white, 4-petaled, fragrant.

Fruit and Seeds: Sep-Feb. Elliptical drupes in conical terminal clusters, pale green in summer becoming blue-black in winter, 0.2-0.5 in (6-12 mm) long and 0.2 in (5 mm) wide, occurring in terminal branched clusters.

Ecology: Occurs on same habitats as Chinese Privet,