Invasiveness Assessment - Small-leaf privet (Ligustrum sinense) in Victoria

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Plant invasiveness is determined by evaluating a plant’s biological and ecological characteristics against criteria that encompass establishment requirements, growth rate and competitive ability, methods of reproduction, and dispersal mechanisms.

Each characteristic, or criterion, is assessed against a list of intensity ratings. Depending upon information found, a rating of Low, Medium Low, Medium High or High is assigned to that criterion. Where no data is available to answer a criterion, a rating of medium (M) is applied. A description of the invasiveness criteria and intensity ratings used in this process can be viewed here.

The following table provides information on the invasiveness of Small-leaf privet.

A more detailed description of the methodology of the Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method can be viewed below:

Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method (PDF - 630 KB)
Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method (DOC - 1 MB)
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Common Name: Small-leaf privet
Scientific name: Ligustrum sinense

Question	Comments	Rating	Confidence
Establishment
Germination requirements?	The optimum temperature for germination of L.sinense has been found to be between 20 to 25ºC (Burrows & Kohen 1983). Like other similar Ligustrum species the seeds of this species are believed to germinate on a seasonal basis.	MH	MH
Establishment requirements?	Reported to invade forest as well as coastal cliffs (van Aalst 1992). The species can therefore establish under moderate canopy conditions.	MH	MH
How much disturbance is required?	The species readily invades forest habitats particularly riparian areas (Merriam & Feil 2002).	MH	H
Growth/Competitive
Life form?	The species is described as usually being a multi-stemmed shrub (Swarbrick, Timmins & Bullen 1999).	L	H
Allelopathic properties?	A similar species, L .lucidum is suspected of having allelopathic properties (Blood 2001).	M	L
Tolerates herb pressure?	The plant is reported to tolerate being a preferred browse species of white tailed deer (Stromayer et al 1998). The species is therefore considered to be capable of persisting and reproducing under moderate grazing pressure.	MH	H
Normal growth rate?	The species is highly invasive and can dominate the existing vegetation forming monospecific layers within the forest (Muyt 2001; Stromayer et al 1998). The species is therefore considered to be able to have a growth rate that would exceed most other shrub species.	H	MH
Stress tolerance to frost, drought, w/logg, sal. etc?	The species has been found tolerant of waterlogging (Brown & Pezeshki 2000). Fire may kill the aboveground stems, the species can however resprout from the root crown (Faulkner, Clebsch & Sanders 1989). The species has some frost tolerance (PFAF 2007).	MH	MH
Reproduction
Reproductive system	The species reproduces sexually as well as vegetatively through suckering (Muyt 2001).	H	MH
Number of propagules produced?	The species is capable of producing more than 2,000 propagules annually as 2,800 fruit per stem has been reported as an average annual production (Westoby, Dalby & Adams-Acton 1983).	H	H
Propagule longevity?	Seeds of this species have been found to be short lived and to remain viable for less than five years (Panetta 2000).	L	H
Reproductive period?	Can form dense monospecific stands within the forest understorey (Stromayer et al 1998).	H	H
Time to reproductive maturity?	It is not reported when the species can first reproduce sexually or vegetatively however the similar species L. lucidum takes 4 years to flower (Blood 2001).	M	L
Dispersal
Number of mechanisms?	Seeds are dispersed by bird species including currawongs (Bass 1996).	H	H
How far do they disperse?	Currawongs have been reported to disperse seeds far greater distances than 1 km (Spennemann & Allen 2000).	H	H

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