Laurustine is a broadleaf evergreen, woody shrub in the viburnum family (Viburnaceae). The plant is native to the Mediterranean areas of Europe and North Africa. It requires full sun to partial shade and soil with good drainage. Give it a site with 6 to 12 feet of available space to grow as this shrub makes a wide footprint at maturity. Fruit set requires that another viburnum type be planted nearby. Laurustine is deer, drought and salt tolerant. This shrub blooms from winter to spring with clusters of pink buds opening to fragrant and showy white flowers attracting butterflies, birds and bees. The leaves are a lustrous, dark green year-round. Black or blue fruits are a source of food for wildlife. Use this shrub as a specimen or hedge in coastal shade gardens or foundation plantings, borders or privacy screens. It is used in a variety of landscape themes including butterfly, cottage, pollinator and winter gardens. Quick ID Evergreen shrub with winter flowers in terminal cymes. Ovate leaves have hair tufts on the underside. Pink-budded flowers open to white. Metallic blue drupes mature to black. Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems: The Clemson Cooperative Extension Home and Garden Information Center has a factsheet on common pests and diseases. These include fungal and algal leaf spot, powdery mildew, downy mildew, botryospheria dieback and canker, armillaria root rot, aphids, flower thrips, spider mites, scale and root weevils. More information on Viburnum .
Curated pairwise relationships between this plant and others in the library — who feeds
whom, who competes, who confuses the pests. Green reads as a good pairing, red as one to avoid.
No curated interactions recorded for this species yet.
Also noted by NC State
Related species the NC State Plant Toolbox flags for this plant — look-alikes to tell
apart, and plants that play a similar role in a planting. Ones we carry in the library are linked.
Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day) | Partial Shade (Direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)
Soil texture
Clay; High Organic Matter; Loam (Silt); Sand
Soil drainage
Good Drainage
Available space
6-feet-12 feet
NC region
Coastal
Mature size
Height: 6 ft. 0 in. - 12 ft. 0 in. | Width: 6 ft. 0 in. - 10 ft. 0 in.
Growth rate
Medium
Maintenance
Low
Canopy layer
3 - Shrub (3-15 ft)
Form & Appearance
Habit / form
Dense; Erect; Multi-stemmed; Rounded
Texture
Medium
Foliage
Broadleaf Evergreen
Leaf color
Green; Variegated
Leaf type
Simple
Leaf arrangement
Opposite
Leaf shape
Oblong; Ovate
Leaf margin
Entire
Leaf feel
Glossy
Leaf size
1-3 inches long, 1-3 inches wide
Hairs present
Yes
Leaf detail
Leaves opposite, simple, narrowly ovate to oblong, entire, lustrous dark green above and paler with axillary hair tufts beneath; petiole usually pubescent.
Flower color
Pink; White
Flower value
Fragrant; Showy
Flower form
Cyme
Flower size
1-3 inches
Flower detail
Pink buds open to 2 to 4 in. clusters of waxy flattened white flowers in late winter to early spring. The inflorescence is a convex terminal cyme.
Bloom time
Spring; Winter
Fruit color
Black; Blue
Fruit type
Drupe
Fruit value
Showy
Fruit size
< 1 inch long, < 1 inch wide
Fruit detail
Fruit is an ovoid, berry-like, one-seeded drupe, blue maturing to purplish-black, 0.4 in.