Syringa villosa
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Syringa villosa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- S. bretschneideri Lemoine
- S. emodi var. rosea Cornu
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
- Syringa × chinensis
- Syringa emodi
- Syringa × henryi
- Syringa × hyacinthiflora
- Syringa × josiflexa
- Syringa josikaea
- Syringa komarowii
- Syringa × nanceiana
- Syringa oblata
- Syringa × persica
- Syringa pinetorum
- Syringa pinnatifolia
- Syringa potaninii
- Syringa × prestoniae
- Syringa pubescens
- Syringa reticulata
- Syringa tomentella
- Syringa vulgaris
- The Garden Lilacs
A deciduous shrub, 10 ft or more high, of robust habit; branches erect, stout, stiff, nearly or quite glabrous when young, marked with a few pale dots. Leaves oval or oval lance-shaped, pointed, rounded or wedge-shaped at the base, 2 to 6 in. long, 1 to 21⁄2 in. wide, glabrous and dark green above, glaucous and thinly furnished with bristle-like hairs or nearly glabrous beneath; stalk 1⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long. Panicles terminal and axillary, often three at the end of a leafy shoot; they are usually 6 to 10 in. long (but I have measured exceptionally fine ones 18 in. long), half to two-thirds as wide. Corolla lilac-rose, 1⁄2 in. long, the lobes 1⁄8 in. long, rounded, spreading. Calyx bell-shaped with four short, pointed lobes; slightly hairy or glabrous. Seed-vessel about 1⁄2 in. long. Series Villosae. Bot. Mag., t. 9284.
Native of N. China; discovered early in the 18th century by Père d’Incarville, the Jesuit missionary; introduced around 1880 by Dr E. Bretschneider from the mountains west of Peking, where it sometimes attains the dimensions of a tree. Much confusion existed for a time as to the correct name for this lilac but eventually it was shown to be the true S. villosa and that the plants then grown under that name were really S. pubescens.
This beautiful lilac, perhaps the most robust of its section of the genus, flowers at the end of May and early in June, after the flowers of the common lilac and its varieties have faded. It is one of the most desirable of hardy shrubs, vigorous in constitution, and free flowering. It differs from S. vulgaris and its allies in forming a true terminal bud, and in flowering on the current year’s shoots. As will be noticed by the synonyms recorded above, it has been referred to as S. emodi, to which it is allied, but from which it differs in its larger, more open inflorescence.
subsp. wolfii (C.K.Schneid.) Jin Y.Chen & D.Y.Hong
Synonyms
Syringa formosissima Nakai
Syringa wolfii C.K.Schneid.
Editorial Note
Treated by Bean as Syringa wolfii.
A deciduous shrub up to 20 ft high; young shoots glabrous or nearly so, turning grey. Leaves oval-lanceolate, slenderly pointed, more or less abruptly tapered at the base, glabrous except for down beneath (especially on the veins), 3 to 7 in. long, about half as wide, dark green above, pale beneath; stalk 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Panicle terminal, up to 12 in. long, opening in June; flower-stalks downy. Flowers lilac, fragrant; corolla 1⁄2 in. long, the lobes erect; anthers inserted half-way down the tube, primrose yellow. Calyx usually more or less downy, sometimes glabrous; cup-shaped, scarcely or not at all lobed. Seed-vessel 1⁄2 in. long, glabrous, blunt ended. Series Villosae.
Native of Korea and Manchuria; introduced about 1909. This handsome and very hardy lilac differs from subsp. villosa in the corolla lobes being spreading and in the anthers being near the mouth. It has the same erect corolla lobes as the Hungarian lilac, S. josikaea, but the latter has smaller anthers inserted even lower than those of S. wolfii, and is not so vigorous, less handsome, and with smaller leaves paler beneath.