Syringa komarowii
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Syringa komarowii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Syringa sargentiana C.K.Schneid.
- Syringa reflexa C.K.Schneid.
Other taxa in genus
- Syringa × chinensis
- Syringa emodi
- Syringa × henryi
- Syringa × hyacinthiflora
- Syringa × josiflexa
- Syringa josikaea
- Syringa × nanceiana
- Syringa oblata
- Syringa × persica
- Syringa pinetorum
- Syringa pinnatifolia
- Syringa potaninii
- Syringa × prestoniae
- Syringa pubescens
- Syringa reticulata
- Syringa tomentella
- Syringa villosa
- Syringa vulgaris
- The Garden Lilacs
Editorial Note
Bean treated this species under two names, S. komarowii and S. reflexa. Both entries are reproduced below.
Syringa komarowii
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.
Syringa reflexa
A deciduous shrub up to 12 ft or perhaps more high; young shoots somewhat angular, stout, warty, becoming grey the second season. Leaves oval-oblong, sometimes obovate or ovate-lanceolate, pointed, mostly tapered at the base, 3 to 8 in. long, nearly half as much wide, dark green above, paler beneath; there are many short hairs on the midrib and chief veins beneath, otherwise they become nearly glabrous before falling. Flowers densely packed in a series of whorls on a terminal, leafy, arching or pendulous, cylindrical or narrowly pyramidal panicle, 4 to 10 in. long and 11⁄2 to 4 in. wide, opening in June, not fragrant. Each flower has a narrow funnel-shaped tube about 1⁄3 in. long, rich pink or purplish pink outside, whitish within; and four ovate, pointed lobes inflexed at the tip which give the flower a diameter of 3⁄8 in. Calyx cup-shaped, with small erect teeth; glabrous or slightly downy. Seed-vessel cylindrical, 3⁄4 in. long, warted. Series Villosae. Bot. Mag., t. 8869.
Syringa komarowii
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.
Syringa reflexa
Native of Hupeh, Central China; discovered by Henry in 1889; introduced in 1910 by Wilson, who found it at elevations of 8,000 to 9,000 ft. It is undoubtedly one of the handsomest of the Chinese lilacs and perfectly hardy. The most distinctive character is afforded by the shape and pose of the inflorescence which, in being densely packed with blossom, in being of cylindrical shape and more or less pendulous, differs from all other cultivated lilacs except S. komarowii (q.v.).
Syringa reflexa has been successfully used in various interspecific crosses. Hybrids with S. sweginzowii were first raised in the early 1930s by Messrs Hesse of Germany, who coined the collective name S. × swegiflexa for plants of this parentage. (See also S. × josiflexa, under S. josikaea, and S. × prestoniae).
