1. Forestiera acuminata (Michx.) Poir. (swamp privet)

Pl. 460 l, m; Map 2093

Plants shrubs or occasionally small trees, 2–8 m tall, dioecious or with some perfect flowers mixed with the pistillate and/or staminate ones. Trunks often only 1 or few but frequently branched from near the base, erect or irregularly ascending (the branches sometimes arched), the bark brown to dark brown, thin, becoming thinly ridged with age. Twigs relatively slender, gray or light brown to reddish brown, glabrous or short-hairy, more or less circular in cross-section, with raised leaf scars and oval, pale lenticels. Terminal buds often closely flanked by the uppermost, shorter pair of axillary buds, narrowly ovoid to narrowly ellipsoid, with several, overlapping, sharply pointed scales that often are slightly spreading at the tips, the axillary buds broadly ovoid, with scales that are broadly to bluntly pointed at the tips. Leaves opposite or occasionally subopposite, short- to moderately petiolate. Leaf blades simple, 2–9(–11) cm long, 1–3(–4) cm wide, elliptic to ovate, or somewhat rhombic, tapered to the sharply pointed tip, tapered at the base (the upper portion of the petiole often winged), the margins entire or shallowly and bluntly toothed, the upper surface medium green and glabrous or less commonly sparsely to moderately hairy along the midvein, the undersurface lighter green to yellowish green and glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, many-flowered, yellow, those with staminate flowers appearing as dense clusters to 1.5 cm in diameter, those with pistillate flowers appearing as loose clusters or small panicles to 2 cm long (to 3 cm long at fruiting), produced from 1-year-old branches, developing before the leaves or just as the leaves begin to expand, some of the branch points with small, scalelike bracts (these shed early), the flowers sessile or with slender stalks to 2 mm long, not fragrant. Calyces absent or rarely present in pistillate flowers, then 4-lobed or -toothed, 0.5–1.5 mm long, the lobes or teeth triangular. Corollas absent. Style 0.5–1.5 mm long, with a pair of ascending branches at the tip. Fruits drupes, 7–15 mm long, usually slightly flattened, narrowly and often somewhat asymmetrically ellipsoid (often slightly curved), green, turning dark purple to purplish black. 2n=46. March–May.

Scattered in the eastern portion of the state, mostly in the Mississippi Lowlands Division and counties bordering the Mississippi River (north to Pike County), also uncommon and disjunct in the southwestern portion of the state (Kansas to Texas east to Kentucky, South Carolina, and Florida). Bottomland forests, swamps, and banks of rivers and sloughs; also ditches, railroads, and moist, open, disturbed areas.

The species was reported by Sargent (1922) as occasionally cultivated and hardy at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. Steyermark (1963) encouraged that it be planted more extensively due to its early blooming. It apparently has not gained much in popularity and is not included in several modern references on cultivated plants. Swamp privet purportedly has close-grained, hard wood that is suitable for use in wood-turning projects.