Ligustrum confusum - Indian Privet

Indian Privet is a shrub or small tree up to 8 m. Branchlets are round, finely velvet-hairy when young, becoming hairless. Leaf-stalks are 4-5 mm, hairless or finely velvet-hairy; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, sometimes lanceshaped, 2.5-7 x 1.3-3 cm, thin leathery, hairless, base wedge-shaped to broadly wedge-shaped or rounded, tip tapering or pointed; primary veins 4-6 on each side of midrib. Flowers are borne in panicles at branch-ends, 4-11 x 2-8 cm; axis finely velvet-hairy to velvet-hairy. Flowers are nearly stalkless. Sepal-cup is 1-1.5 mm, hairless. Flowers are 4-5 mm; tube about as long as petals. Stamens not exceeding petals, anthers 1-1.5 mm. Fruit is black or black-brown, almost spherical to obovoid, 6-11 mm in diameter. Indian Privet is found in thickets near rivers or strean sides, at altitudes of 800-2100 m, from Himalayas to SE Asia. Privet was originally the name for the European semi-evergreen shrub Ligustrum vulgare, and later also for the more reliably evergreen Ligustrum ovalifolium (Japanese privet), used extensively for privacy hedging (hence "privet", private). The term is now used for all members of the genus Ligustrum. Flowering: June-July.