Ligustrum vulgare

Ligustrum vulgare
Mature shrub in summer
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Oleaceae
Tribe:	Oleeae
Genus:	Ligustrum
Species:	L. vulgare
Binomial name
Ligustrum vulgare L.

Ligustrum vulgare (wild privet, also sometimes known as common privet or European privet), is a species of Ligustrum native to central and southern Europe, north Africa and southwestern Asia, from southern England and southwestern Sweden south to Morocco, and east to Poland and northwestern Iran.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Berries

It is a semi-evergreen or deciduous shrub, growing to 3 m (rarely up to 5 m) tall. The stems are stiff, erect, with grey-brown bark spotted with small brown lenticels. The leaves are borne in decussate opposite pairs, sub-shiny green, narrow oval to lanceolate, 2–6 cm long and 0.5–1.5 cm broad. The flowers are produced in mid summer in panicles 3–6 cm long, each flower creamy-white, with a tubular base and a four-lobed corolla ('petals') 4–6 mm diameter. The flowers produce a strong, pungent fragrance that many people find unpleasant. The fruit is a small glossy black berry 6–8 mm diameter, containing one to four seeds. The berries are poisonous to humans but readily eaten by thrushes, which disperse the seeds in their droppings.^[4][5][6]

Plants from the south of the range show a stronger tendency to be fully evergreen; these have sometimes been treated as a separate variety Ligustrum vulgare var. italicum (Mill.) Vahl,^[5] but others do not regard it as distinct.^[1]

In the British Isles it is the only native privet, common in hedgerows and woodlands in southern England and Wales, especially in chalk areas; it is less common in northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, where it only occurs as an escape from cultivation.^[5][7][8]

Cultivation and uses

The species was used for hedging in Elizabethan gardens in England, but was superseded by the more reliably evergreen introduction L. ovalifolium from Japan.^[7]

A number of cultivars have been selected, including:^[5]

• 'Aureum' – yellow leaves.
• 'Buxifolium' – small, oval leaves not over 2.5 cm long.
• 'Cheyenne' – cold-tolerant clone selected in North America.
• 'Chlorocarpum' - berries green.
• 'Insulense' – long, narrow leaves 5–11 cm long and 1-2.5 cm broad.
• 'Leucocarpum' – berries greenish-white.
• 'Lodense' – dense, dwarf shrub (the name is a portmanteau of 'low' and 'dense').
• 'Pyramidale' – fastigiate.
• 'Xanthocarpum' – berries yellow.

Invasiveness

The species is listed as invasive as an introduced plant in Australia,^[9] Canada,^[10] New Zealand,^[11] and the United States.^[12][13] It is also fully naturalised in Mexico's highlands^[14] and Argentina.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ligustrum vulgare.