Syringa pekinensis
Common name: 
Peking Lilac
Chinese Tree Lilac
Pronunciation: 
si-RING-ga pe-kin-EN-sis
Family: 
Oleaceae
Genus: 
Syringa
Synonyms: 
Syringa reticulata subsp. perkinensis
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Deciduous shrub or small tree, multi-stemmed, 15-20 ft (4.5-6 m) high, slightly less in width; branches slender and brownish red when young; bark is smooth with prominent lenticels and/or exfoliating in brown flakes sheets.  Leaves simple, opposite, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5-10 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, dark green above and grayish green below, mostly glabrous (without hairs).  Flowers yellowish white, in clusters 7.5-15 cm long, appear in early summer.  Fruit oblong, acute, 1.3-2.5 cm long.
  • Sun.  Resistant to mildew
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 4  [Not as hardy as Syringa reticulata (Snyder, 2000)]    Native to northern China.  Introduced to Western cultivation via seeds sent from Peking to England in 1881 and to Arnold Arboretum the next year (Jacobson, 1996).
  • Oregon State Univ. campus: on the north side of Orchard Ave. west of 27th St. (across from Cordley Hall)
Click image to enlarge
  • opening flower cluster

    opening flower cluster

  • plant habit, flowering

    plant habit, flowering

  • plant habit, flowering

    plant habit, flowering

  • flower clusters and leaves

    flower clusters and leaves

  • flower cluster

    flower cluster

  • leaves

    leaves

  • plant habit, leaves and young fruit

    plant habit, leaves and young fruit

  • plant habit, summer

    plant habit, summer

  • plant habit, winter

    plant habit, winter

  • branches,bark

    branches,bark

  • trunk, bark

    trunk, bark