Ligustrum japonicum Japanese privet, waxleaf privet

Ligustrum japonicum ‘Texanum’ at Barnum Center. Sairus Patel, 22 May 2017

This is the ubiquitous hedged shrub around bicycle racks on campus, especially the more compact ‘Texanum’ cultivar. Its leaves are clearly thicker and waxier than those of L. lucidum, and blunter at the tip. When the shearers haven’t been too enthusiastic, cheerful panicles of small white flowers appear in April and May, followed by dark purple fruit. When allowed to grow into a small tree, as near the Tresidder side of Faculty Club, it reveals attractive patchy gray bark. Three-tiered “poodle” topiaries of ‘Texanum’ in the Thomas Church Garden continue those specified by Church in the 1960s. A group of 11-foot-tall shrubs, lush and gleaming, stands on the north side of Hoskins. In Palo Alto, waxleaf privet is often grown to similar height as a dense sidewalk privacy screen, the fallen flowers gathering beneath the hedge in wavy-edged drifts like spilt cream.