Syringa komarowii Schneid.

A deciduous shrub up to 15 ft high; young shoots pale brown, distinctly warted. Leaves mostly oval, but sometimes obovate or ovate-lanceolate, tapered sometimes slenderly and equally towards both ends, sometimes more abruptly towards the apex, 3 to 7 in. long, 1 to 23⁄4 in. wide, dark green above and downy on the sunken midrib when young, yellowish green beneath and downy more or less all over; stalk 1⁄3 to 3⁄4 in. long. Inflorescence borne on a leafy shoot, nodding, 4 to 6 in. long, 2 in. wide, of cylindric shape, made up of whorls of densely packed flowers, the main-stalk strongly warted and sparingly downy. Flowers deep rose, pink, or lilac-coloured, about 1⁄2 in. long, the four lobes of the corolla 1⁄12 in. long, erect or rather spreading; calyx cup-shaped, 1⁄12 in. long, with shallow triangular lobes or truncate, rather downy like the short flower-stalk. Seed-vessel 1⁄2 in. long, nearly glabrous. Flowers in June. Series Villosae.

Native of W. Szechwan, China; introduced by Wilson in 1908, but apparently represented in the St Petersburg Herbarium in 1893. It is a handsome lilac closely related to S. reflexa, which differs in its more slender, longer and more recurved panicles and usually more warted fruits.