Red-leaf privet is a common landscaping nursery stock variety

Red-leaf privet is a horticultural cultivar of the genus Ligustrum in the family Oleaceae. It is an evergreen small tree with opposite simple leaves; the branchlets are slightly covered with fine hairs, and the leaves are ovate, ovate-round to ovate-elliptic, thin leathery, extremely similar in leaf shape to Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense), with stronger sprouting ability, faster growth and vigorous growth. Its new shoots and young leaves are purplish red, and against the backdrop of the old leaves they appear all the more vivid and dazzling. After being pruned several times, the new branches become dense and the whole crown turns purplish red, making it even more gorgeous and striking among green plant clusters. After winter sets in, the whole plant turns purplish black again, standing out even more among all things.

Red-leaf privet is not only distinctive in color, but also highly adaptable. It is not demanding about soil and is relatively cold-tolerant and drought-tolerant, and it can grow in places such as Beijing, Gansu, Lanzhou, Shijiazhuang, Henan and Changsha, Hunan. During the growing season it generally has no pests or diseases, requires extensive management and is very easy to maintain. Therefore it is also easy to promote. For red-leaf privet, excess side branches can be removed to promote the growth of the main trunk and train it into a tree for street greening, thereby changing the situation in which evergreen trees dominated by southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) and camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) rule the roost in the Shanghai area and even across East China (from the perspective of ecological benefits, such domination is also undesirable), adding new garden tree species, enriching urban garden colors, overcoming monotony and oversimplification, and at the same time making urban gardens more natural, thus achieving the goal of ecological gardening, which is also the development direction of urban gardens.