Photographs: Co. Cork and Co. Waterford

Wild Privet Ligustrum vulgare Pribhéad Family: Oleaceae Flowering June-August. Semi-evergreen shrub/small tree. Native/introduced Terminal panicles of slightly scented 4-lobed white flowers followed by small black berries. Elliptical-lanceolate opposite leaves, narrower than those of Garden Privet, L. ovalifolium. Slightly hairy 1st year twigs. Prefers well-drained neutral or calcareous soils in hedges, scrub, wood edges and on roadsides and sea-cliffs. Thought to be native only in counties Dublin, Galway, Tipperary and Waterford.

Wild Privet, Ligustrum vulgare, Pribhéad