Syringa microphylla Diels

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Syringa microphylla' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/syringa/syringa-microphylla/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Genus

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
ciliate
Fringed with long hairs.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
orbicular
Circular.
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 microphylla' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/syringa/syringa-microphylla/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

A deciduous shrub 5 ft or more high, of spreading habit, with slender, downy young shoots. Leaves roundish ovate, pointed or rounded at the apex; 12 to 2 in. long, 13 to 114 in. wide, dark green above, greyish green beneath, slightly downy on both surfaces, ciliate; stalk 16 to 13 in. long. Panicles 2 to 4 in. long and 112 to 2 in. wide, produced in pairs at the end of the shoot and often supplemented by lateral ones. Flowers very fragrant, pinkish-lilac, the corolla slender-tubed, 38 in. long, with the spreading lobes oblong, round-ended, 18 in. long; calyx downy, helmet-shaped, 116 in. long, with very short triangular lobes. Seed-vessel spindle-shaped, 12 in. long, warted. Series Pubescentes.

A native of N. and W. China; discovered by the Italian missionary Giraldi in 1893; introduced to the Coombe Wood nursery of Messrs Veitch by Purdom in 1910. It is variable in the downiness of the young shoots, leaves, etc., and separate species have been made of its more glabrous forms, which are, however, linked to the typical state by intermediates. It is a very distinct lilac on account of its small size and the often nearly orbicular shape of its leaves. It flowers in June but a second crop of flowers is often produced in autumn on the current year’s leafy shoots. A particularly floriferous form has been named S. microphylla ‘Superba’.