Species
+

Ligustrum lucidum W.T.Aiton

Broadleaf Privet, Chinese Privet, Chinese privet, White wax tree, Chinese wax-leaf privet

Climate known 59 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ligustrum lucidum, the broad-leaf privet, Chinese privet, glossy privet, tree privet or wax-leaf privet, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae, native to the southern half of China and naturalized in many places. The name "Chinese privet" is also used for Ligustrum sinense.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ligustrum lucidum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ligustrum

A privet is a flowering plant in the genus Ligustrum. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs or trees, with a native distribution from Europe to tropical and subtropical Asia, and with one species each native to Australia and north Africa. Some species have become widely naturalized or invasive where introduced. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Privet”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Oleaceae
Described by
W.T.Aiton
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central +5
Wild records
115 in range· 44 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1296mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 220 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1296 mm a year, wettest June at 220 mm, driest December at 26 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Esquirolia sinensis H.Lév.; Faulia verrucosa Raf.; Ligustrum compactum var. latifolium W.C.Cheng; Ligustrum esquirolii H.Lév.; Ligustrum hookeri Decne. and 26 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (998 mm of 1296 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.2 °C against a yearly mean of 16.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1296 mm a year, wettest June at 220 mm, driest December at 26 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1296 mm a year at the habitat, 998 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 220 mm, driest December at 26 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 861 mm to 1962 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.1 °C, the absolute minimum -17.4 °C, about 35 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -5.3 °C to 5.5 °C), warmest day 30.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 8 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1296 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 110 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–33RH 59–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 110 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 5–1410 / 7–1515 / 11–1921 / 17–2325 / 21–2728 / 24–2930 / 24–3330 / 24–3226 / 21–2921 / 16–2416 / 11–2011 / 6–15
Night °C1 / -5–63 / -3–76 / 2–1112 / 7–1517 / 12–1920 / 16–2323 / 17–2622 / 16–2519 / 14–2114 / 9–178 / 2–113 / -3–6
Rain mm31 / 7–9039 / 11–12366 / 22–202113 / 39–251170 / 78–273220 / 108–341216 / 143–298166 / 127–258113 / 82–19079 / 50–12257 / 18–8826 / 5–53
DLI17 / 13–2119 / 14–2622 / 17–3328 / 22–3731 / 26–3730 / 27–3533 / 29–3631 / 28–3326 / 20–2922 / 15–2518 / 13–2216 / 12–20
RH %61 / 55–6561 / 54–6661 / 54–6661 / 54–6661 / 56–6563 / 58–6764 / 60–6763 / 61–6762 / 59–6661 / 58–6660 / 57–6459 / 56–64

Each figure is the median across the 110 grid cells holding the 114 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1192:5897 (30.375, 114.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 110 distinct grid cells holding the 114 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1192:5897 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_115.000, lapse-corrected -32 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 26 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Korea, Nepal, Myanmar· introduced: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Canary Is., Lesotho, Free State, Japan, Pakistan, Norfolk Is., New Zealand North, Alabama, Arkansas, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Trinidad-Tobago, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker25.228, 113.217 · in the densest population, 64 records (56% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 115 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 44 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 21 km away. 1341 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 115 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ligustrum lucidumLigustrum lucidumLigustrum lucidumLigustrum lucidumLigustrum lucidumLigustrum lucidumLigustrum lucidumLigustrum lucidum

Photographs: (c) Alison Northup, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) lazarus, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Cliff Tyllick, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Todd Boland, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ligustrum lucidum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of selected Chinese medicinal plants and their relation with antioxidant content
Anjaneya S. Ravipati, Lin Zhang, Sundar Rao Koyyalamudi, Sang Chul Jeong (2012) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Acta Scientiarum Biological Sciences
Felipe Natali Andrade, Maynara Lucca Moreira, Gabriela Virginia Camporez, João Paulo (2013) · Acta Scientiarum Biological Sciences
In vitro anticancer activity of twelve Chinese medicinal herbs
Mark Shoemaker, Bobbi Hamilton, Schanaz H. Dairkee, Isaac Cohen (2005) · Phytotherapy Research
Monitoring the invasion of an exotic tree (Ligustrum lucidum) from 1983 to 2006 with Landsat TM/ETM+ satellite data and Support Vector Machines in Córdoba, Argentina
Gregorio Gavier-Pizarro, Tobias Kuemmerle, Laura E. Hoyos, Susan I. Stewart (2012) · Remote Sensing of Environment
Invasion of glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) and native forest loss in the Sierras Chicas of Córdoba, Argentina
Laura E. Hoyos, Gregorio Gavier-Pizarro, Tobias Kuemmerle, Enrique H. Bucher (2010) · Biological Invasions
Ultrasound-assisted extraction of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid from Ligustrum lucidum Ait
En-Qin Xia, Ying-Ying Yu, Xiang‐Rong Xu, Guifang Deng (2011) · Ultrasonics Sonochemistry
In Vitro Evaluation of Secoiridoid Glucosides from the Fruits of Ligustrum lucidum as Antiviral Agents.
Shuang‐Cheng Ma, Zhendan He, Xue‐Long Deng, Paul Pui‐Hay But (2001) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Microwave-Assisted Extraction of Oleanolic Acid and Ursolic Acid from Ligustrum lucidum Ait
En-Qin Xia, Bowei Wang, Xiang‐Rong Xu, Li Zhu (2011) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ligustrum 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 83 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.