A semi-evergreen or, in severe winters or in poor soil, a deciduous shrub 10 to 15 ft high, of vigorous growth, forming a dense thicket of erect stems; young shoots usually quite glabrous. Leaves 1 to 21⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. wide, oval, wedge-shaped at the base, blunt or pointed at the apex, glossy green and glabrous on both surfaces; stalk 1⁄8 in. long. Flowers produced during July in a stiff, erect, terminal panicle, 2 to 4 in. high and about the same wide; they are very crowded in the panicle, dull white, and have a heavy, unpleasant odour. Calyx and individual flower-stalk smooth. Corolla 1⁄3 in. long. Fruits globose, shining, black.
Native of Japan. The oval-leaved privet is a worthy associate of the common one for dark corners or places starved by roots of trees where scarcely anything else will grow. For hedges it is preferable to the common privet because of its more evergreen nature; it has, in fact, almost entirely displaced it for that purpose. It is not worthy of being put to better use, being of stiff, ungainly habit, its flowers dull, and to most people evil-smelling.
cv. ‘Argenteum’. – Leaves bordered with creamy white. This pale variegation is not as rich and effective as that of the following.
cv. ‘Aureum’. Golden Privet. – Leaves green only in the centre, with a border of varying width of rich golden yellow. This is the most popular of all variegated shrubs, and has been propagated by hundred of thousands for town planting. Although it is the fashion to revile it, it certainly produces a very bright effect and brings colour into many a hemmed-in garden or dull city yard where little of any kind will grow. It is also useful in a small state for town window-boxes. In habit it is less rigid and more graceful than the type and the young shoots, seen under the lens, are thickly but very minutely downy.