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Wild Privet

Wild privet

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Enw gwyddonol: Ligustrum vulgare
Wild privet is a shrub of hedgerows, woodlands and scrub, but is also a popular garden-hedge plant. It has white flowers in summer and matt-black berries in winter that are very poisonous.

Top facts

Stats

Height: 3-5m

Conservation status

Common.

Pryd i'w gweld

January to December

Ynghylch

Wild privet is a common, semi-evergreen shrub of hedgerows, woodland edges and grassland scrub 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.

What to look for

Wild privet has small, oval, glossy green leaves and smooth bark. Clusters of small white flowers appear at the ends of its twigs, and matt-black berries appear in the autumn.

Where to find

Grows wild across England, Wales and southern Scotland; planted in Northern Ireland.

Roeddech chi yn gwybod?

The closely related, Garden privet, was introduced into the UK from Japan. It has been widely planted as a hedge shrub and appears on waste ground where garden rubbish is thrown away.