4. Ligustrum vulgare L. (common privet; European privet)
Pl. 460 h, i;
Map 2105
Plants 1–5 m
tall and about as wide, the main stems usually numerous, erect or ascending,
with spreading to broadly ascending branches. Twigs densely pubescent with
minute, spreading hairs (becoming glabrous or nearly so by second year), the
new growth green, becoming gray with light grayish brown lenticels. Winter buds
with the scales tawny to brown, glabrous. Petioles 3–16 mm long, glabrous,
sometimes narrowly winged. Leaf blades 2–8 cm long, 6–20 mm wide, relatively
thick and somewhat leathery, narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic or lanceolate,
angled or tapered to a sharply or occasionally bluntly pointed tip, the upper
surface glabrous, shiny, the undersurface glabrous, faintly gland-dotted.
Inflorescences ascending to spreading or nodding, relatively broad panicles,
3–6 cm long, with numerous flowers. Calyces glabrous. Corollas 5–9 mm long, the
tube shorter than to about as long as the lobes, white. Stamens not exserted or
short-exserted. 2n=46. May–June.
Introduced,
uncommon, widely scattered (native of Europe; introduced widely but
sporadically in the U.S., Canada). Banks of spring branches; also old homesites
and disturbed areas.
This privet is
the most widely planted Ligustrum species for hedges east of Missouri.
Numerous cultivars have been developed for variegated leaves as well as various
growth habits and fruit colors.
Steyermark
(1963) discussed L. vulgare as an excluded species that he expected to
eventually be discovered in Missouri outside of cultivation. The present study
has confirmed this prediction, although two other species not included in
Steyermark’s treatment, L. obtusifolium and L. sinense, have
proven to escape cultivation more commonly in our region.