Border privet
Ligustrum obtusifolium · Oleaceae · 쥐똥나무
How to spot it
Named 'jwittongnamu' (rat-dropping tree) because the ripe black fruit looks like rat droppings; identified by opposite leaves and black fruit.
Look
- Leaves
- Long elliptic, 2 to 7 cm long, blunt-tipped with smooth margins and hairs on the veins beneath.
- Flowers
- White tubular flowers (7 to 10 mm long, four-lobed at the tip) bloom in May to June in many racemes 2 to 3 cm long at the twig tips; two stamens.
- Fruit
- The drupe is round-ovoid, 5 to 7 mm long, black, ripening in October.
- Bark
- Twigs are slender and finely hairy, but hairless from the second year, grayish white and heavily fissured.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native
- Native to
- Eastern China and Japan; in Korea found south of Hwanghae-do.
- Ecology
- Naturally shade-tolerant but needs enough light; strongly tolerates salt, cold and pollution and is not fussy about soil.