Lottah Nursery Tasmania, Australia

LILACS - TAXONOMY

Following classification of lilacs is extracted from an article by J. S. Pringle which appeared in Winter 1997 edition of ILS Journal 26(1):19-26, and is republished with the kind permission of the editor and the author.

Subgenus Ligustrina (Rupr.) K.Koch
- - S. reticulata (Blume) H.Hara
  - - ssp. reticulata
    - ssp. amurensis (Rupr.) P.S.Green & M.C.Chang
    - ssp. pekinensis (Rupr.) P.S.Green & M.C.Chang†

Subgenus Syringa
- Series Syringa
- - S. vulgaris L.
  - S. oblata Lindl.
  - - ssp. oblata
    - ssp. dilatata (Nakai) P.S.Green & M.C.Chang
  - S. protolaciniata P.S.Green & M.C.Chang
  - S. afghanica C.K.Schneid.*
- Series Pinnatifoliae Rehder
- - S. pinnatifolia Hemsl.
- Series Pubescentes (C.K.Schneid.) Lingelsh.
- - S. pubescens Turcz.
  - - ssp. pubescens
    - ssp. patula (Palib.) M.C.Chang & X.L.Chen
    - ssp. julianae (C.K.Schneid.) M.C.Chang & X.L.Chen
    - ssp. microphylla (Diels) M.C.Chang & X.L.Chen
    - - var. microphylla
      - var potaninii (C.K.Schneid.) P.S.Green & M.C.Chang
      - var flavanthera (X.L.Chen) M.C.Chang*
  - S. meyeri C.K.Schneid.
  - - - var. meyeri
      - var. spontanea M.C.Chang*
  - S. mairei C.K.Schneid.*‡
  - S. pinetorum W.W.Sm.*
  - S. wardii W.W.Sm.*‡
- Series Villosae C.K.Schneid.
- - S. villosa Vahl
  - S. emodi Wall. ex Royle
  - S. wolfii C.K.Schneid.
  - S. josikaea J.Jacq. ex Rchb.
  - S. komarowii C.K.Schneid.
  - - ssp. komarowii
    - ssp. reflexa (C.K.Schneid.) P.S.Green & M.C.Chang
  - S. tomentella Bureau & Franch.
  - S. sweginzowii Koehne & Lingels.
  - S. yunnanensis Franch.
  - S. tibetica P.Y.Bai*

*Not known to be in cultivation, or not known to be in cultivation outside China.
[Edited 2009/11/03: Chang and Qin discovered S. meyeri var. spontanea growing in the wild in 1989; seeds were sent to Kew and plants have been established in the UK. (ILS Journal, Vol. 38 #4, 2009)]

†Revision: In correspondence dated July 2003 Dr. Pringle wrote: "Moving on to S. pekinensis, I have, for such purposes as that of my Flora of North America manuscript accepted species rank for this taxon, following Li, Zhang, and Alexander."

‡Chen, J-Y, Zhang, Z-S & Hong, D-Y, 'Taxonomic revision of Syringa pinetorum complex (Oleaceae)' Journal of Systematics and Evolution 46 (1): 93–95 (2008) recognize S. maireri and S. wardii as belonging to the S. pinetorum complex.

Reference:
- Li, Jianhua, John H. Alexander III, & Donglin Zhang. 2002. Paraphyletic Syringa (Oleaceae): evidence from sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS and ETS regions. Systematic Botany. Quarterly Journal of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists 27(3):592-597.