[5][6] A large shrub, it has a very restricted range, although fossils assigned to the species suggest a much wider prehistoric distribution in central Europe.

It is a deciduous shrub growing to a height of 2–4 m. The leaves are elliptic-acute, 6–12 cm long, with a finely hairy margin.

[7][5][8][9] The Hungarian lilac belongs to the genus Syringa, which is distributed across Eurasia, with its centre of diversity in East Asia.

These two taxa together form the sister group of the Hungarian lilac, whereby the split is estimated to have taken place during the Gelasian period in the early Pleistocene, about 1.88 Mya.

This indicates that the species used to be much more widespread in Central Europe during warm Quaternary interglacial periods, and was only restricted to its current distribution area in the Carpathians during the last glacial maximum (LGM).

[9] Despite its continental European origin, it has proved to be surprisingly successful when cultivated in the oceanic extremes of northwestern Europe on the Faroe Islands and in arctic northern Norway north to Kirkenes.