Leggy shrub. A friend asked me to identify this. It's a leggy shrub,, looks like opposite glossy leaves with purple (somewhat translucent) fruit. It's about 5 ft. high and wide. I was thinking viburnum, but can't find any that look like this. Any ideas?
One of the things I thought was characteristic of the plant in my posting that turned out to be Lonicera nitida (Woody maidenhair-spleenwort-looking shrub) is that the leaf tips were rounded, not pointed, so I called the shape elliptic. I thought this looked the same plant, and was amused to think how jealous @Silver surfer will be that imwildflower found this plant with fruits not even knowing how exciting that should be, but I see pointed leaf tips, particularly in the second photo. So not a characteristic, I guess.
It depends on where on the shoot you look - descriptions calling the leaves rounded or blunt are apparently only referring to leaves near the ends. "Ovate" tends to be used in brief accounts of this plant, but apparently there is not universal agreement on this term meaning rounded at both ends - for instance the info page for the typical species at the site linked to below uses the phrase "ovate to roundish" (Click on Main Page on page linked to below, scroll up after new page opens, click on info under Lonicera nitida). Red Tips Box Honeysuckle, Oregon State Univ., LANDSCAPE PLANTS
Page below has a drawing (#10) crafted specifically to show the "Variation of leaf shapes" (the Flora is giving naming preference to L. ligustrina var. yunnanensis over L. nitida). Notice also that if you click on the green hyperlink in the top left and read the description of the var. it says apex usually rounded or obtuse Illustration: Lonicera ligustrina var. yunnanensis
