Syringa vulgaris

Syringa vulgaris

Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Oleaceae
Genus:	Syringa
Species:	S. vulgaris
Binomial name
*Syringa vulgaris* L.

Syringa vulgaris, the lilac or common lilac, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family Oleaceae, native to the Balkan Peninsula, where it grows on rocky hills.^[1]^[2]^[3] Grown in spring for its scented flowers, this large shrub or small tree is widely cultivated and has been naturalized in parts of Europe, Asia and North America. It is not regarded as an aggressive species. It is found in the wild in widely scattered sites, usually in the vicinity of past or present human habitations.^[4]^[5]^[6]

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Lilac. Syringa vulgaris. Lilacs are a very evocative, aromatic plant in the garden. In April and May here in New Haven there's nothing like the Lilacs coming into bloom and spreading their scent throughout the garden. This is a variety that has the typical light blue, light purple lilac flowers. They run a range from the dark purple to a white, with some mauve and almost red colors. Lilacs are all members of olive family, Oleaceae and it shares that family heritage with the Ash tree. Therein lies a couple of the problems with the Lilac. The Ash tree borer and the Lilac borer are insects that attack Lilacs and Ash trees and these insects particularly feed on the larger wood. There is a way to manage that, we'll talk about. The Lilac again blooms in mid-Spring, in April and May and then really there is not much to recommend it for the rest of the year. It stays green through the Summer, no Fall color to speak of. It is really a one season plant, but during that season, you just can't beat it. It is so aromatic and evocative. Success with Lilac depends really on full sun to light shade. They also don't want to be in sopping wet soil, so well-drained soils. It doesn't have to be particularly rich, but you want to plant them in full sun if you've got it. They are great in a shrub border, as we have here at the garden. They can also be an accent plant. You can plant them near the deck or patio for that wonderful Spring aroma. The name Lilac actually goes back through old English, back through the French, back to Persian and actually, Sanskrit. It means a certain color of blue. The Arabic name Lilak is a particular blue that has come to us through the ages, through the name of this flower. The botanical name Syringa comes from the Greek, syrinx, and that means a hollow tube, referring to the stems of the plant. The smaller, woody stems of this plant that could be hollowed out and could be used as whistles or pipes. One of the ways to handle those insect pests that I mentioned the Lilac borer and the Ash borer, are they attack the older, larger pieces of the stem. So with Lilacs, for a couple of reasons, you want to do what is called rejuvenation pruning. That is where you get into the middle of the plant, at the bottom and you take out the oldest canes. So on this plant you can see, I'm touching next year's pruning. I will be taking that all the way back to the ground level. These smaller canes that I am holding back, these are the ones that will be flowering next year. Lilacs flower on second year wood. So you don't want to take all of the canes out, you'll lose the flowering for a year. What that kind of pruning does for you is that it helps keep the borers away, because they are attracted to the larger wood and it also makes it so that the flowers of the Lilac are right at nose level, as opposed to higher up. The Lilacs can actually get 15 to 18 feet tall. And I'll tell you having a Lilac at nose height is really a great advantage. Lilac. A wonderful Spring blooming plant.

Description

Syringa vulgaris is a large deciduous shrub or multi-stemmed small tree, growing to 6–7 m (20–23 ft) high. It produces secondary shoots from the base or roots, with stem diameters up to 20 cm (8 in), which in the course of decades may produce a small clonal thicket.^[7] The bark is grey to grey-brown, smooth on young stems, longitudinally furrowed, and flaking on older stems. The leaves are simple, 4–12 cm (2–5 in) and 3–8 cm broad, light green to glaucous, oval to cordate, with pinnate leaf venation, a mucronate apex, and an entire margin. They are arranged in opposite pairs or occasionally in whorls of three. The flowers have a tubular base to the corolla 6–10 mm long with an open four-lobed apex 5–8 mm across, usually lilac to mauve, occasionally white. They are arranged in dense, terminal panicles 8–18 cm (3–7 in) long. The fruit is a dry, smooth, brown capsule, 1–2 cm long, splitting in two to release the two-winged seeds.^[1]^[8]

Taxonomy and naming

Syringa vulgaris was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and the description was published in Species Plantarum.^[9]^[10] The Latin specific epithet vulgaris means "common" (in the sense of "widespread").^[11]

Garden history

Lilacs—both S. vulgaris and S. × persica the finer, smaller "Persian lilac", now considered a natural hybrid—were introduced into northern European gardens at the end of the 16th century, from Ottoman gardens, not through botanists exploring the Balkan habitats of S. vulgaris.^[12] The Holy Roman Emperor's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, is generally credited with supplying lilac cuttings to the Dutch horticulturist Carolus Clusius about 1562. Well-connected botanists, such as the great herbalist John Gerard, soon had the rarity in their gardens: Gerard noted that he had lilacs growing "in very great plenty" in 1597. However, lilacs were never mentioned by Shakespeare^[13] and the 19th century botanist John Loudon was of the opinion that the Persian lilac was introduced into English gardens by John Tradescant the elder in the 17th century.^[14] Tradescant's source for information on the lilac, and perhaps ultimately for the plants, was Italian naturalist Pietro Andrea Mattioli, as one can tell from a unique copy of Tradescant's plant list in his Lambeth garden, an adjunct of his Musaeum Tradescantianum; it was printed, though probably not published, in 1634: it lists Lilac Matthioli. That Tradescant's "lilac of Mattioli's" was a white one is shown by Elias Ashmole's manuscript list, Trees found in Mrs Tredescants Ground when it came into my possession (1662):^[15] "Syringa alba".

In the American colonies, lilacs were introduced in the 18th century. Peter Collinson, F.R.S., wrote to the Pennsylvania gardener and botanist John Bartram, proposing to send him some, and remarked that John Custis of Virginia had a fine "collection", which Ann Leighton interpreted as signifying common and Persian lilacs, in both purple and white, "the entire range of lilacs possible" at the time.^[16]

It is also slowly making its way into the world of bonsai where it is loved for its flowers and multistem features.^[17]

Cultivation

The lilac is a very popular ornamental plant in gardens and parks, because of its attractive, sweet-smelling flowers, which appear in early summer just before many of the roses and other summer flowers come into bloom.^[18]

In late summer, lilacs can be attacked by powdery mildew, specifically Erysiphe syringae, one of the Erysiphaceae.^[19] No fall color is seen and the seed clusters have no aesthetic appeal.

Common lilac tends to flower profusely in alternate years, a habit that can be improved by deadheading the flower clusters after the color has faded and before seeds, few of which are fertile, form. At the same time, twiggy growth on shoots that have flowered more than once or twice can be cut to a strong, outward-growing side shoot.

It is widely naturalised in western and northern Europe.^[8] In a sign of its complete naturalization in North America, it has been selected as the state flower of the state of New Hampshire, because it "is symbolic of that hardy character of the men and women of the Granite State".^[20] Additional hardiness for Canadian gardens was bred for in a series of S. vulgaris hybrids by Isabella Preston, who introduced many of the later-blooming varieties. Their later-developing flower buds are better protected from late spring frosts. The Syringa × prestoniae hybrids range primarily in the pink and lavender shades.^[21]

Cultivars

Most garden plants of S. vulgaris are cultivars, the majority of which do not exceed 4–5 m (13–16 ft) tall.^[22] Between 1876 and 1927, the nurseryman Victor Lemoine of Nancy, France, introduced over 153 named cultivars, many of which are considered classics and still in commerce today. Lemoine's "French lilacs" extended the limited color range to include deeper, more saturated hues, and many of them are double-flowered "sports", with the stamens replaced by extra petals.

AGM cultivars

The following cultivars of Syringa vulgaris have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:

With single flowers:

'Andenken an Ludwig Späth' (deep pink/red)^[23]
'Esther Staley' (S. × hyacinthiflora - pale lilac flowers)^[24]
'Firmament' (pale lilac-blue)^[25]
'Sensation' (purple flowers edged white)^[26]
'Vestale' (pure white flowers)^[27]

With double flowers:

'Katherine Havemeyer' (lilac)^[28]
'Madame Lemoine' (white)^[29]
'Mrs Edward Harding' (deep pink/red)^[30]
'Primrose' (pale yellow flowers)^[31]

Other uses

The flowers of common lilac are edible and used for flavoring honeys, sugars, food and other sweets. ^[32]^[33]

Gallery

Flowers and heart-shaped leaves
'Alba'
'Charles Joly'
'Corondel'
'Etna'
'Mme. Francisque Morel'
'Maréchal Foch'^{[citation needed]}
Wood
Branch end displaying fasciation
Buds of white lilac
Single lilac flower

References

^ ^a ^b Rushforth, K. (1999). Trees of Britain and Europe. Collins ISBN 0-00-220013-9.
^ Med-Checklist: Syringa vulgaris
^ Flora Europaea: Syringa vulgaris
^ Biota of North Idaho America Program, Syringa vulgaris
^ Altervista Flora Italiana, Syringa vulgaris
^ Illinois wildflowers, common lilac, Syringa vulgaris
^ In second-growth woodlands of New England, a thicket of lilac may be the first indication of the cellar-hole of a vanished 19th-century timber-framed farmhouse.
^ ^a ^b Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). Flora of Britain and Northern Europe. ISBN 0-340-40170-2.
^ "Syringa vulgaris". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
^ Linnaeus, Carl (1753). Species Plantarum (1 ed.). Stockholm: Laurentii Salvii. p. 9. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
^ Harrison, Lorraine (2012). RHS Latin for Gardeners. United Kingdom: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 978-1845337315.
^ The botanic homeland of S. vulgaris was identified in 1828, when naturalist Anton Rocher found truly wild specimens in Balkans .
^ Their first appearance by name in English print was in the OED dated to 1625.
^ Loudon, Arboretum (1838:49), noted in R.T. Gunther, Early British Botanists and their Gardens (Oxford: Frederick Hall) 1922:339.
^ Written in the endpapers of his copy of John Parkinson's Paradisus, in the Bodleian Library; printed in Gunther 1922:346
^ Ann Leighton, American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century (University of Massachusetts Press) 1986:445
^ D'Cruz, Mark (16 April 2020). "Ma-Ke Bonsai Care Guide for Common Lilac". Ma-Ke Bonsai. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
^ RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 978-1405332965.
^ B. Ing, "An Introduction to British Powdery Mildews", in The Mycologist 5.1 (1990:24–27).
^ New Hampshire Revised Statute Annotated (RSA) 3:5
^ "Plant Profiles - Chicago Botanic Garden". www.chicagobotanic.org. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
^ Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan ISBN 0-333-47494-5.
^ "Syringa vulgaris 'Andenken an Ludwig Späth'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "Syringa × hyacinthiflora 'Esther Staley'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "Syringa vulgaris 'Firmament'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "Syringa vulgaris 'Sensation'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "Syringa vulgaris 'Vestale'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "Syringa vulgaris 'Katherine Havemeyer'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "Syringa vulgaris 'Madame Lemoine'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "Syringa vulgaris 'Mrs Edward Harding'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "Syringa vulgaris 'Primrose'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ "How to Eat Lilacs (and Other Ways to Use Them)". Practical Self Reliance. 12 May 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ "Edible Wild Food Blog » Lilac Flowers for Eye Health". Retrieved 12 January 2022.