Flowering shrub

Hairy lilac

Syringa pubescens

Hairy lilac (Syringa pubescens) is a shrub in the Oleaceae family.

🌷 Flowering shrub

Hairy lilac is a popular flowering shrub. It's on our flower lists for 9 states.

0states where USDA records it

9Bloomipedia state lists include it

1U.S. sightings*

*iNaturalist research-grade observations, as of October 23, 2026. Our state lists also include states where people grow it in gardens, so they can outnumber USDA's wild-plant records. Planted garden shrubs are mostly excluded from research grade.

On our lists for: Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington

Quick look

Syringa pubescens is a species of flowering plant in the lilac genus of the family Oleaceae, native to Korea and China.
From Wikipedia's article Syringa pubescens, CC BY-SA 4.0.

It belongs to the Oleaceae family. ^iNaturalist
iNaturalist has 1 research-grade sightings of it in Colorado, ranking #129 among the 160 flowers on our Colorado list. ^iNaturalist

When does it bloom?

Not enough flowering records on iNaturalist to chart yet.

Bloom time in the 9 states whose Bloomipedia list includes it

State	Type	Peak bloom	Sightings*
Colorado	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	1
Illinois	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	0
Kentucky	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	0
Massachusetts	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	0
Minnesota	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	0
New York	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	0
Oregon	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	0
Pennsylvania	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	0
Washington	🌷 Garden	no flowering records	0

Conservation status

Federal (U.S. ESA)

Not listed No U.S. Endangered Species Act listing in the USFWS ECOS database. ^{USFWS ECOS}

NatureServe

Unknown We couldn't find this name in NatureServe Explorer. ^NatureServe

State rare plant lists

Not listed Not on the official rare plant list in 7 of our 9 states.

See each state

Illinois: Not listed Not on Illinois List of Endangered and Threatened Flora (17 Ill. Adm. Code 1050), per the Endangered Species Protection Board's 2025 checklist. ^{IL E&T checklist 2025}
Kentucky: Not listed Not on Kentucky endangered and threatened plant lists (400 KAR 3:040, eff. 2026). ^{400 KAR 3:040}
Massachusetts: Not listed Not on Massachusetts Endangered Species Act list (321 CMR 10.90). ^{MESA list}
Minnesota: Not listed Not on Minnesota endangered, threatened and special concern plants (Minn. R. 6134.0300). ^{Minn. R. 6134.0300}
New York: Not listed Not on New York protected native plants (6 NYCRR § 193.3). ^{6 NYCRR § 193.3}
Oregon: Not listed Not on Oregon endangered and threatened plants (OAR 603-073-0070). ^{OAR 603-073-0070}
Pennsylvania: Not listed Not on Pennsylvania classified native plants (17 Pa. Code Ch. 45, Subchapter B, as amended 2023). ^{17 Pa. Code Ch. 45}

Colorado

No list Colorado has no state law listing endangered or threatened plants, so we show NatureServe's Colorado ranks instead.

Washington

No list Washington has no state law listing endangered or threatened plants (the Washington Natural Heritage Program's rare plant list isn't regulatory), so we show NatureServe's Washington ranks instead.

Checked October 23, 2026. Rankings and lists can change, so follow the links for the latest.

Can you eat it?

For peopleNot well documented

None of the sources we checked (NC State Extension (no page for this plant), USDA PLANTS) say whether it's edible or poisonous for people.

For petsNot well documented

It isn't on the ASPCA plant list.

🌿 Never eat a wild plant unless you're certain of its ID; this isn't medical advice. Worried about a person? Call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. Worried about a pet? Call your vet.

Where does it grow?

USDA PLANTS has no state-by-state distribution for this name, so we can't map it yet.

Names, range and relatives

Other Syringa on Bloomipedia (3): Purple lilac, Japanese tree lilac, Meyer lilac.

More from the Oleaceae family (9 on Bloomipedia; most observed first): Downy forestiera, White fringetree, Spiny menodora, Border forsythia, Sweet olive, Chinese fringetree.

Hairy lilac and Meyer lilac are covered by the same Wikipedia article. They are listed separately because iNaturalist treats them as different taxa (Syringa pubescens and Syringa meyeri).