Elaeagnus something-or-other? Large fragrant deciduous hedge: Eliptical leaves, not silvery, rather "waxy kelly green" with faint veins like mini laurel leaves. Some elongated, newer ones simply elongated ovals. Not alternating. Rather straight-edged, not wavy, not serrated. Flowers in clusters reminiscent of inverted lilacs in form. Colour is slightly creamy white; two yellow pistils; . Individual blossoms are 4-petalled tiny "trumpet" shaped, no larger than a couple of millimeters wide/long, growing in twin opposing pairs from their stalk, which pairs alternate (west+east, next north+south) position as you move along the stalk. Blooming now (1 July / Richmond BC), extraordinarily fragrant esp. evening, travels down the block after dark. Fragrance reminiscent of jasmine, mock orange.
Privet? http://locavore4lore.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/smellovision/ http://www.ehow.com/facts_7726376_privet-hedge-reproduce.html Now considered an invasive species in many areas.
You got it, some variety of Privet. Think it's "sinese" based on amateur pics around the web (many of which seem to contradict each other - but on average, that's it). Too bad it's an "invasive" - wife is RU, "privet" = "Hi!" in Russian, she'll want one. (Personally, I'm having a hard time buying into the current pogroms against invasive/alien species. When I moved to Steveston there was a patch on the beach, must have covered 10 square meters. 30 years later, it covered 10 square meters. Today - zero, razed by the alien-species zealots in an asphalt-paved cement-sprouting suburbanized environmental holocaust. At least they quit kidnapping the mute swans...) Thanks for the impossibly quick ID on the hedge!
While I generally agree that the zealots are too strident at times, it's pretty hard to argue their point with images like these. http://www.invasive.org/browse/subthumb.cfm?sub=3035
We definitely have the same dry spells in July, August and the first half of September and that doesn't stop seedling germination. Must be those Killer Slugs or something wiping out the seedlings. ;-)
The July precipitation here is less than one inch. Some reseeding of various Ligustrum spp. has been seen, with LL. ovalifolium and vulgare appearing to have gone wild. But we do not have large nuisance thickets of these developing frequently. L. sinense has not been noted as popping up outside of cultivation in this area at all, as far as I am aware. Plants of eastern North American and eastern Asian origin do not invade local undeveloped lands like multiple different popular ornamentals have in hot and rainy eastern North America.
While rare we have gone as long as 4 months without measurable precipitation. Not at all unusual to have a rainless month in Summer and combined with 100f or higher most plants struggle to survive much less multiply. Irrigated Kwanso Daylily after 2 months at or near 100F. By most measures one of the toughest plants in the garden.
Here in Steveston (a paved-over cranberry bog delta) the odds of invasion are limited by the fact that 5000 sq. ft. of "undeveloped land", if it existed, would sell in an hour for a million bucks. No risk, unless sinese can invade one of the randomly-anointed "environmentally sensitive areas", whose principal feature seems to be "refractory to development": the bayous (tidal flats & the soupiest bogs) and airport buffers. My amateur acid-test for real weeds is what grows in the (protected, of course) utterly unnatural dredge-dumps that have mushroomed into islands: hemlock, blackberry, alder. No fragrant ligustrum, no colorful scotch broom, no graceful bamboo. But I'll concede that saltcedar's pics gave me cause for pause...
Adapted plants surviving periodic drought in humid Texas does not disprove the fact that the annual drought and plummeting summer humidity of the PNW almost completely excludes wet summer climate weedy plants. Even the dreaded Japanese honeysuckle is almost a nonentity as a wild plant - I have seen one specimen, unusually favorably situated where the topography allowed the spot to be sub-irrigated by a lake but was not a cold swamp.
Never actually said or implied it did. Just color me skeptical that those conditions exclude Ligustrum spp. from successfully reseeding in your climate. http://www.invasive.org/gist/moredocs/lig_sp01.doc
I can show anyone who cares, 2 specimens of the Ligustrum I know as English Privet growing in "the wild" in the Fraser Valley. As of right now, around here, it does not seem too high on the list of problem plants - to me. I agree with diatom's cynicism & bitterness toward development & how it is done around here ("densify or be damned" in the guise of "eco-friendly"). I do not agree with his dismissal of invasives & the problems they cause. Just wait 20 years & every vacant piece of ground from Richmond to Hope will be covered in Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica), Laurel (Prunus Laurocerasus), Holly (Ilex angustifolium) & Ivy (Hedera helix). What a dreadful combination....you think I'm exaggerating - just take a careful look around. Great observation & description of the plant BTW, diatom. An example for me - I tend to be lazy & carelsss at times.
