Syringa vulgaris L.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Syringa vulgaris' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/syringa/syringa-vulgaris/). Accessed 2024-03-27.

Genus

Common Names

  • Common Lilac

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
hybrid
Plant originating from the cross-fertilisation of genetically distinct individuals (e.g. two species or two subspecies).
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Syringa vulgaris' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/syringa/syringa-vulgaris/). Accessed 2024-03-27.

A deciduous shrub or small tree, up to 20 ft high, usually producing a crowd of erect stems, but occasionally a single trunk over 2 ft in girth, clothed with spirally arranged flakes of bark; shoots and leaves quite glabrous. Leaves heart-shaped or ovate, 2 to 6 in. long, from three-fourths to almost as much wide near the base; stalk 34 to 114 in. long. Panicles pyramidal, 6 to 8 in. long, usually in pairs from the terminal buds. On cultivated improved varieties, panicles 12 to 18 in. long are produced. Flowers ‘lilac’, delightfully fragrant; corolla-tube 13 to 12 in. long, the lobes concave; calyx and flower-stalks more or less furnished with minute gland-tipped down. Seed-vessels smooth, 58 in. long, beaked. Series Syringa.

Native of the mountainous regions of E. Europe. Introduced to W. Europe in the 16th century. It has been cultivated in England for over three hundred years, and is now as characteristic a feature of village scenery as almost any native shrub.

For a selection of garden varieties of S. vulgaris (and of S. × hyacinthiflora, its hybrid with S. oblata), and a note on their cultivation and pruning, see pp. 544–50.