Documented in AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, KY, LA, MA, MD, MO, MS, NC, NJ, OH, OK, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV.
Native range
Introduced / established
7 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Only uncertain or inapplicable hardiness rows are cited; no primary zone is projected.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
2 ecological invasive reports.
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Ligustrum sinense · exact match.
Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.
Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 3 — 10–30 ft from the structure; thin vegetation, remove debris, and minimize plant massing [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (mid-scale rating)
Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019: Appendix A1.9 — Exotic vegetation [nswrfs-pbp-a1.9] (with its avoid rating)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
“Under adverse fire weather conditions these plants can contribute to the intensity of bush fires.”
Appendix A1.9 identifies Ligustrum sinense within its main exotic vegetation groups, reports intense surface-fire behaviour for these groups, and assigns them regulatory vegetation fuel-class conversions.
18 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
“time to flaming (s): 15.35”
FLAMITS record 9697; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device muffle furnace; site Murray2013-1; sampling march to april. Primary study Murray2013: Murray, B. R., Hardstaff, L. K., & Phillips, M. L. (2013). Differences in leaf flammability, leaf traits and flammability-trait relationships between native and exotic plant species of dry sclerophyll forest. PLoS One, 8, e79205.
Primary study Salvo2015: Salvo-Aires, F. (2015). Effects of woody weeds on fuels and fire behaviour in Eastern Australian forests and woodlands. PhD. Dissertation. University of Sydney.
Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Salvo2015-1; sampling ND.
Primary study Tiller2020a: Tiller, M., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Conway, W., & Hung, I. (2020a). Initial investigation of seasonal flammability of three invasive East Texas forest understory fuels using thermogravimetric analysis. Forest ReseaRCH, 9, 230.
Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020a-1.
“temperature at flaming (°C): 166.6”
FLAMITS record 13116; Ignitability measurement; sampling august.
“temperature at flaming (°C): 176.54”
FLAMITS record 13120; Ignitability measurement; sampling february.
“burning duration (s): 820.2”
FLAMITS record 13123; Sustainability measurement; sampling august.
“burning duration (s): 783”
FLAMITS record 13127; Sustainability measurement; sampling february.
Primary study Tiller2020b: Tiller, M. B., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Hung, I.-K., Jerez, S., & Weng, Y. (2020). Spatial and seasonal flammability comparisons of native and exotic plants in the Post Oak Savannah, Blackland Prairie, and Pineywoods Ecoregions of Texas. Asheville, NC, USA.
Shared row context: Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020b-1; sampling august and february.
