Ligustrum vulgare
Encyclopedia
Ligustrum vulgare 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
.
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 lenticel
s. 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 flower
s are produced in mid summer in panicle
s 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, sweet fragrance that many people find unpleasant. The fruit
is a small glossy black berry
6–8 mm diameter, containing one to four seed
s. The berries are poison
ous to humans but readily eaten by thrushes
, which disperse the seeds in their droppings.
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, but others do not regard it as distinct.
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.
(Oval-leaved Privet) to Europe, it soon lost out in popularity to the newcomer, because although both are technically semi-evergreen, the Oval-leaved Privet keeps its leaves better in winter.
A number of cultivar
s have been selected, including:
, Canada
, New Zealand
, and the United States
.. It is also fully naturalised in Mexico
's highlands and Argentina
.
Ligustrum
Ligustrum is a genus of about forty species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs, sometimes forming small or medium-sized trees. They are now all known by the common name of privet.-Selected species:...
native to central and southern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, north Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and southwestern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, from southern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and southwestern Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
south to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, and east to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and northwestern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
or deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
, growing to 3 m (rarely up to 5 m) tall. The stems are stiff, erect, with grey-brown bark
Bark
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...
spotted with small brown lenticel
Lenticel
A lenticel is an airy aggregation of cells within the structural surfaces of the stems, roots, and other parts of vascular plants. It functions as a pore, providing a medium for the direct exchange of gasses between the internal tissues and atmosphere, thereby bypassing the periderm, which would...
s. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
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 flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are produced in mid summer in panicle
Panicle
A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....
s 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, sweet fragrance that many people find unpleasant. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is a small glossy black berry
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
6–8 mm diameter, containing one to four seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s. The berries are poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ous to humans but readily eaten by thrushes
Thrush (bird)
The thrushes, family Turdidae, are a group of passerine birds that occur worldwide.-Characteristics:Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground or eat small fruit. The smallest thrush may be the Forest Rock-thrush, at and...
, which disperse the seeds in their droppings.
Plants from the south of the range show a stronger tendency to be fully evergreen; these have sometimes been treated as a separate variety
Variety (biology)
In botanical nomenclature, variety is a taxonomic rank below that of species: as such, it gets a three-part infraspecific name....
Ligustrum vulgare var. italicum (Mill.) Vahl, but others do not regard it as distinct.
In the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
it is the only native privet
Ligustrum
Ligustrum is a genus of about forty species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs, sometimes forming small or medium-sized trees. They are now all known by the common name of privet.-Selected species:...
, 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.
Cultivation and uses
The species was used for hedging in Elizabethan gardens, but after the introduction of the Japanese Ligustrum ovalifoliumLigustrum ovalifolium
Ligustrum ovalifolium, also known as Oval-Leaved Privet, is a semi-evergreen shrub used extensively for hedging, and sometimes for other garden uses. The species comes from Japan...
(Oval-leaved Privet) to Europe, it soon lost out in popularity to the newcomer, because although both are technically semi-evergreen, the Oval-leaved Privet keeps its leaves better in winter.
A number of cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s have been selected, including:
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Aureum' – yellow leaves.
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Buxifolium' – small, oval leaves not over 2.5 cm long.
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Cheyenne' – cold-tolerant clone selected in North America.
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Chlorocarpum' - berries green.
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Insulense' – long, narrow leaves 5-11 cm long and 1-2.5 cm broad.
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Leucocarpum' – berries greenish-white.
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Lodense' – dense, dwarf shrub (the name is a portmanteau of 'low' and 'dense').
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Pyramidale' – fastigiate.
- Ligustrum vulgare 'Xanthocarpum' – berries yellow.
Invasiveness
The species is listed as invasive as an introduced plant in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.. It is also fully naturalised in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
's highlands and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.