Wild privet is a common, bushy, deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub with dark green, lance-shaped leaves and terminal panicles of small, white, pungently-scented flowers. Of hedgerows woodland edges and grassland scrub generally on well-drained calcareous soils. It is also commonly used for hedging in suburban gardens. White flowers appear from June, and black berries ripen in autumn. Although the berries are extremely poisonous to humans, they are eaten by thrushes and other birds. Wild Privet is also the main foodplant of the privet hawk-moth and provides cover for small birds and other animals.
In the British IslesLigustrum vulgare is the only native privet, common in hedgerows and woodlands autochthonous throughout all the south-west, especially in chalk areas; it is less common in northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, where it only occurs as an escapee from cultivation. In Cornwall and much of Devon this is more often a coastal species growing wherever there is calcareous wind-blown sea sand. However, it frequently occurs further inland, usually in a hedge where it might be argued that it was planted by a human, although it can turn up in woodland or other unexpected places.
At Trebrown Nurseries we maintain our own registered seed stands on Trebrown Farm, which remain the only seed stands registered in Cornwall. Ligustrum vulgare is not a FRM controlled species. But is FRM Certified under the voluntary scheme.
