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Ligustrum
Also called Privets
Privet (Ligustrum) is a genus of about 50 species of shrubs and small trees, widely grown as hedging and ornamental plants. Most grow easily in ordinary garden soil and tolerate regular pruning.
A privet is a flowering plant in the genus Ligustrum. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs or trees, with a native distribution from Europe to tropical and subtropical Asia, and with one species each native to Australia and north Africa. Some species have become widely naturalized or invasive where introduced. Privet was originally the name for the European semi-evergreen shrub Ligustrum vulgare, and later also for the more reliably evergreen Ligustrum ovalifolium and its hybrid Ligustrum × ibolium used extensively for privacy hedging, though now the name is applied to all members of the genus. The generic name was applied by Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) to L. vulgare. It is often suggested that the name privet is related to private, but the Oxford English Dictionary states that there is no evidence to support this.
In addition to being cultivated to create ornamental hedges and foliage, privet is also widely used in horticulture and flower arrangements. The oval leaf privet Ligustrum ovalifolium is used for hedges, while its flexible twigs are sometimes used as cords for lashing. The tree species, especially Chinese privet is frequently used as a street tree in Europe, while other species including Ligustrum japonicum and Ligustrum quihoui are among the others also sometimes used as ornamental plants in gardens.
Privet became very popular in Britain as a replacement for ornamental railings around properties, which had been lost to the 1941 UK government's requisitioning of, with few exceptions, all post-1850 iron gates and railings for the war effort. The government had the intention of melting down the donated metal for use in the manufacture of armaments in WWII, although it is not certain how much of the metal was actually used. The remaining stubs of sawn-off railings can still be seen on many garden walls in the UK, often partly obscured by privet bushes.
A plant may produce thousands of fruits, most of which are eaten by birds.
Japanese privet · Glossy privet · California privet · Wild Privet
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Privet by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
