A deciduous tree up to 30 ft high, of erect habit, often a shrub; young shoots not downy, but marked with small, round, pale dots. Leaves ovate with a long tapering point, rounded or broadly wedge-shaped at the base; 3 to 8 in. long, about half as wide, and either glabrous or slightly downy beneath, glabrous above; stalk 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Flowers cream-coloured, somewhat privet-scented, produced at the end of the branch, usually in a pair of broad pyramidal panicles, 8 to 12 in. long, 6 to 8 in. through. Corolla 1⁄4 in. across, the short tube almost hidden in the calyx, which is bell-shaped and scarcely lobed. Seed-vessel 3⁄4 in. long, scimitar-shaped, glabrous, blunt at the end. Bot. Mag., t. 7534.
Native of Japan; introduced to the Arnold Arboretum in 1876 and thence to Kew in 1886. Professor Sargent, who saw it wild on the hills of central Hokkaido (Yezo), says that there it is an ungainly, straggling tree, 25 to 30 ft high, with a trunk rarely 12 to 18 in. thick. I saw it flowering in June, 1910, in the Arnold Arboretum and other places near Boston, Mass., and it was the most striking tree then in flower, some being specimens over 30 ft high, of shapely, rather columnar habit, and laden with blossom. In Britain it does not succeed so well and remains more a shrub than a tree, but even here it is very attractive at the end of June.
var. mandshurica (Maxim.) Hara Ligustrina amurensis var. mandshurica Maxim.; Syringa amurensis Rupr.; Ligustrina amurensis (Rupr.) Rupr. – Of the lilacs now in cultivation which represent the subgenus Ligustrina (or privet-like species), this is the least satisfactory in my experience. It was discovered in Manchuria by Radde, a Russian botanist, in 1857, and like many other shrubs from the same region, its flower-buds are easily excited into premature growth by warm January and February days, and are almost invariably cut off by late frosts. I have never seen a perfect panicle at Kew, although the flowers set freely enough. The species is a sturdy bushy shrub, 6 to 8 ft high, or a small tree. Leaves 2 to 4 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide, ovate or oval, usually with a drawn-out apex, the base more or less tapered; stalk about 1⁄2 in. long. Flowers dull white, not very pleasantly scented, produced during June in panicles which, when perfectly developed, are 4 to 6 in. long, 3 to 4 in. wide; tube of corolla very short.