1. Fontanesia phillyreoides Labill. ssp. fortunei (Carrière) Yalt. (Persian lilac)

F. phillyreoides var. fortunei(Carrière) Koehne

F. fortunei Carrière

Map 2092

Plants shrubs or less commonly small trees, 1.5–8.0 m tall, dioecious or with some perfect flowers mixed with the pistillate and/or staminate ones. Trunks few several, mostly strongly ascending, the bark light brown to gray, thin and breaking into small plates, becoming thinly ridged or furrowed with age. Twigs relatively slender, purplish to light brown and somewhat shiny, glabrous, more or less 4-angled in cross-section, at least when young (usually with 4 slender ridges), with the leaf scars not or only slightly raised and the lenticels inconspicuous, small, and not raised. Terminal buds narrowly ovoid to ellipsoid, with several, overlapping, sharply pointed scales, the axillary buds ovoid, with scales that are broadly to bluntly pointed at the tips. Leaves opposite, short-petiolate. Leaf blades simple, 2–6(–12) cm long, 0.8–2.5 cm wide, lanceolate to lanceolate-elliptic or occasionally narrowly ovate, angled or more commonly tapered at the sharply pointed tip, mostly angled at the base, the margins entire, the upper surface dark green, glabrous, and often somewhat shiny, the undersurface lighter green and glabrous. Inflorescences terminal, several- to many-flowered, ascending panicles 2–6 cm long developing with or after the leaves, the lower branch points with small, leaflike or scalelike bracts, the flowers with slender stalks 1.5–2.0 mm long, not or slightly fragrant. Calyces deeply 4-lobed, 0.5–0.8 mm long, the lobes ovate. Corollas 4-lobed nearly to the base, 2–3 mm long, more or less bell-shaped, the lobes narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic or strap-shaped, cream-colored or greenish white. Style 1.5–3.0 mm long, with a pair of ascending branches at the tip. Fruits samaras, 5–9 mm long, flattened and narrowly winged around the rim, elliptic to oblong-elliptic in outline, sometimes minutely notched at the tip, olive green, turning yellowish brown with age, glabrous. 2n=26. May–June.

Introduced, known thus far from a single site in Franklin County (native of China; introduced uncommonly in the U.S. [Ohio]). Open disturbed areas.

This species is no longer planted extensively in North America because it is less showy than some related genera and not as easily maintained as a hedge. The Missouri plants were discovered in 2006 by Glenn Beffa at the Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, where a large, old, planted specimen had given rise to a population of escapes, these forming a locally reproducing population.

The two subspecies of F. phillyreoides formerly were treated as separate species, but now usually are considered components of a single species (Chang et al., 1996; K.-j. Kim, 1998). The ssp. phillyreoides is native to the Mediterranean region in eastern Europe and adjacent Asia, and differs primarily in its angled to only slightly tapered leaf tips. It is not cultivated extensively. The second species in the genus, the recently described F. longicarpa K.-J. Kim (Kim 1998), is endemic to a small region in southeastern China. It differs from F. phillyreoides in its fruits, which are 1.5–2.5 cm long, slender, more or less unwinged, and forked apically.