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Ligustrum vulgare L., Wild Privet

Account Summary

Naturalised introduction, common. European temperate, widely naturalised including in N Europe, N America and New Zealand.

1884; Barrington, R.M.; Co Fermanagh.

Throughout the year.

Growth form, flowering reproduction and preferred habitats

A rapid-growing, deciduous, or in milder areas semi-evergreen, spreading, bushy shrub, 3-5 m tall, Wild or Common Privet bears lanceolate, dark green, opposite leaves, 6 cm long and panicles of small, white flowers at the stem tips in early summer. The over-wintering leaves tend to be broader at their apex and often develop a bronze colouring (Lang 1987). Flowering occurs from mid-June to late August, the blossom is very fragrant, but it is considered by many to have a rather unpleasant, sickly-sweet scent. Each flower is 3-4 mm long, with a tubular four-toothed calyx and a tubular corolla with four petal lobes, as long as the tube. The flowers are insect pollinated. The fertilised flowers develop into shiny, black, rounded berry fruits, 6-8 mm in diameter, carried in dense erect clusters. The fruits vary in size depending on the number of seeds (one to four) they contain, the usual number per berry being two or three. While the berries begin to form from late July onwards, it usually takes until the end of October for them to be fully ripe, and they then attract birds (Snow & Snow 1988). In mild winters, the berries often remain on the bushes until the end of the following February as birds appear to prefer other available food. The seeds are large, 5 × 4 mm, shiny and black with a pitted surface and with flat surfaces where they abut (Lang 1987). The berries are eaten and dispersed by Blackbirds and other members of the Thrush family, plus Robins and Magpies, while Blue tits are occasional pulp predators (Snow & Snow 1988).

L. vulgare commonly grows in woods, scrub and hedgerows throughout B & I. The status of the species is questionable and problematic due to a scant, tentative and decidedly inadequate fossil record (Godwin 1975). Even granting some possibility of native status, it still remains difficult to distinguish indigenous from relic introduced stations since it is well known that the shrub has for centuries been frequently planted in hedges and woodland, and it can spread further by self-seeding from bird droppings, typically giving rise to isolated individuals (Harron 1986; T.D. Dines, in: Preston et al. 2002).

However ambiguous its status may be, L. vulgare is quite widely and traditionally regarded as a native plant in S Britain at least. The editors of the BSBI New Atlas hectad map go further and plot the species as native ± throughout England and Wales, although in the view of the current author (RSF), the evidence to support this is shaky or absent. It is also acknowledged that the New Atlas map may contain some records for the related evergreen species, L. ovalifolium (Garden Privet) due to recorder errors (T.D. Dines, in: Preston et al. 2002).

Wild Privet prefers well-drained, calcareous or base-rich soils that are moderately fertile, somewhat sheltered and in half-shade or full sun (Sinker et al. 1985). While growth is favoured by limestone soils, L. vulgare is certainly not confined to them. It can tolerate most soil types provided they are not wet and soggy and is capable of surviving both drought and pollution, making it very suitable hedging material. Although it avoids soggy ground, it regularly occurs on wooded river banks (Green 2008). Its drought resistance is exemplified by the fact that it can occasionally be found bird-sown growing on walls (Reynolds 2013), presumably in part encouraged or allowed to survive on account of the lime in the mortar.

Irish occurrence

Commonly naturalised in hedgerows and spreading into derelict ground and the margins of woodland, Wild Privet is considered by some botanists to be a very rare native species in Co Waterford (H6), N Tipperary (H10), SE Galway (H15) and Co Dublin (H21) where, apart from in hedges, it is confined to cliffs and rocky places (The Botanist in Ireland, paragraph 518; Cen Cat Ir Fl 2; An Irish Flora 1996). Praeger (1934d) seems to be the main authority for this status claim, but he was partisan and therefore not always reliable in such matters. Reynolds (2002) in her Catalogue of alien plants in Ireland, recognises the long history of L. vulgare in planted hedges.

Fermanagh occurrence

Elsewhere in Ireland, including in Fermanagh, the shrub is in the opinion of RHN and the current author (RSF) sensibly regarded as a naturalised introduction, planted in hedgerows and in gardens and spreading into adjacent scrub and the margins of woods, through both naturally bird-sown seed and as clippings discarded along with other garden waste.

As the Fermanagh species tetrad distribution map shows, L. vulgare is very widespread in the VC being recorded in 227 squares (43%), but it is more common in the southern and eastern lowlands where the agriculturally better soils are located.

Toxicity

As with L. ovalifolium (Garden Privet) (see account on this website), all parts of the plant are dangerously toxic to both stock animals and humans, although animals know to avoid it and poisoning is very rare. Children are most at risk and the toxicity should not be under-estimated (Cooper & Johnson 1998).

British and Irish occurrence

Very common and widespread throughout lowland B & I, there can be no doubt that this species has spread widely beyond its natural distribution, the limits of which are now obscure, or indeed impossible to discern (T.D. Dines, in: Preston et al. 2002). The New Atlas hectad map plots L. vulgare as being an introduced alien throughout Scotland and Ireland, although in the latter it is sometimes considered to have native status in a few mainly coastal parts of the south and west (see above).

European and world occurrence

L. vulgare is a plant of wood margins and scrub in Europe, preferring calcareous soils. It is restricted to S, W & C Europe, north to 59°N, and in a small area of SE Norway and SW Sweden (Lang 1987). It is probably only native in regions south and eastwards of Germany towards the Mediterranean basin (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1490). As a native, it is confined to Europe, but is quite widely introduced in eastern parts of N America and has also been recorded in New Zealand.

Names

The genus name 'Ligustrum' is the name of an unknown plant in the ancient Roman writings of Virgil that had white flowers (Gilbert-Carter 1964). It has clearly been 'borrowed' to fit the privet species. Another suggestion is that the name is derived from the Latin 'ligo', meaning 'to bind', the twigs having been used for tying objects (Johnson & Smith 1946). The Latin specific epithet 'vulgare' means 'common', which in this case fits the occurrence rather well!

No fewer than 13 English common names are listed by Grigson (1955, 1987), of which the two earliest, mentioned by Turner (1548), were 'Privet' and 'Primprint'. However, the origin of such words is obscure and they also exist in other variant names as 'Pevit', 'Pevot', 'Prim', 'Privy' and 'Privy Saugh' (ie Privy Willow), leaving us none the wiser. It is very possible that 'privet' and its various modifications arose from the Old English 'pryfet', which is found in place-names such as Privett in Hampshire, and minor names of the Middle Ages such as Prevetmore or Privetheye, although 'privet' on its own is not recorded until 1542. Thus the name remains of unknown derivation, although the suffix '-et' indicates, as in other words from trees and shrubs, a collective, such as a 'thicket' of the plant named in the first syllable of 'privet' (Grigson 1974).

Prior (1879, p. 192) offers another suggestion for the derivation of 'privet', from a mention by the poet and farmer Thomas Tusser (1524-1580), most famous for his instructional poem Five hundred points of good husbandry, first published in 1557, of another name for the plant, namely 'Privy'. This was said to be altered from 'Prymet', an abbreviation of 'Primprint', or 'Prim', the Primrose, through a confusion of this flower and the shrub, from the application to both of them by medieval writers of the Latin name 'Ligustrum'. The names 'Primprint' or 'Prim' are nowadays transferred to the Privet shrub, but formerly belonged to the Primrose, from the French 'prime printemps', meaning 'first spring' and exactly corresponding to the modern French name for the flower, 'primevére' (Prior 1879, p. 190).

Threats

None.