Syringa vulgaris (lilac, lilac, or common lilac) is a botanical species of Syringa in the olive family in the Oleaceae, endemic to the Balkans, southeastern Europe. It is a small tree or a large shrub, deciduous, reaching 6–7 m in height, usually multi-stemmed, producing secondary trunks from the base or from roots, with stem diameters of 2 dm. The bark is gray to gray-brown, smooth in the young, longitudinally cracked in the older ones. Simple leaves, 4–12 cm long x 3–8 cm wide, light green to glaucous, oval to cordate, with venation on the leaflets, a mucronate apex, and entire margins. They go in opposite pairs or occasionally in groups of three. Flowers tubular based, corolla 6–10 mm long with open, four-lobed 5–8 mm apices, usually lilac to mauve, occasionally white; in dense, terminal panicles, 8-18 cm long.