Clusters of scented white flowers and matt-black poisonous berries on a semi-evergreen hedge shrub with small opposite leaves
Wild privet.
Nature · Shrubs
Wild privet
Native · flowers from June · hedgerows, scrub and calcareous grassland
Ligustrum vulgare — Oleaceae
The native privet of hedges, scrub and lime-rich grassland across England, Wales and southern Scotland: a semi-evergreen shrub with small glossy leaves, clusters of scented white flowers in early summer, and matt-black berries that are poisonous to us but eaten by thrushes. It is the main food plant of the privet hawk-moth.
How to spot them
- ▸Small, oval, glossy leaves in opposite pairs, semi-evergreen and smooth-edged
- ▸Upright clusters of small white, heavily scented flowers at the twig ends from June
- ▸Matt-black berries in autumn, hanging in clusters
- ▸Smooth, slim twigs; grows 3–5 m on well-drained calcareous soils
- ▸Look-alike: garden privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium), the hedge plant, is a neophyte with broader, shinier, more evergreen leaves; wild privet has narrower, duller leaves and is a hedgerow native
How to know it
Which hawk-moth's pink-striped green caterpillars feed mainly on this shrub?
Wild privet — the privet hawk-moth.
Related to the ash, the olive and the lilac, this hedgerow shrub belongs to the family Oleaceae
Wild privet.
Poisonous to people, its black berries are nevertheless eaten by thrushes and other birds
Wild privet (Wildlife Trusts).
A lime-loving native shrub of England, Wales and southern Scotland that was planted rather than wild in Northern Ireland
Wild privet.
Its narrower, duller native leaves separate it from the broader glossy-leaved Japanese species so commonly clipped into suburban hedges
Wild privet vs garden privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium).
Quick-fire facts
- •Ligustrum vulgare, family Oleaceae — the same family as ash, olive, jasmine and lilac
- •TOXICITY: Wildlife Trusts state the berries are extremely poisonous to humans; birds such as thrushes eat them safely
- •Main food plant of the privet hawk-moth, one of Britain's largest resident hawk-moths; caterpillars are green with purple and white side-stripes
- •Grows wild across England, Wales and southern Scotland on well-drained calcareous soils; planted, not native, in Northern Ireland (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Flowers from June; berries ripen in autumn; reaches 3–5 m
- •Semi-evergreen: the leaves may persist through mild winters and drop in hard ones
- •The garden privet Ligustrum ovalifolium, from Japan, is a neophyte hedge plant that sometimes escapes
- •A species often recorded in older mixed hedges and counted under Hooper's rule
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Wild privet