Made it through Houston's hard winter. It's a shrub. That's a brick wall with vine on it in the background
Thank you. I'm reluctant to debate with people who're helping me, but I have a compulsive need to get these things correct. Please take this in the spirit it is intended. This is the range map given for Chionanthus virginicus in wikipedia. It doesn't seem like a native plant would have such a sparse presence. Also, though I'm barely in the growing area I'm on the the cusp.
If this is a cultivated situation, could certainly be that the former homeowner planted it as a native plant.
In googling around I ran across a Chionanthus retusus. I really can't distinguish between them, but some pictures of this plant have the more rounded leaves, like in my picture. The Chionanthus virginicus all seem to have more pointy leaves. The flowers of the Chionanthus retusus seem to be in smaller denser clusters. The generalizations can be shown otherwise in the meany web pictures.
