Ligustrum vulgare L.
Eng.: Wild privet, common privet. Spa.: Aligustre, alheña. Fre.: Troène commun, troène vulgaire. Ara.: Chebika.
Shrub, semiperennial, marcescent, hermaphrodite, up to 3(5) m in height, erect, ramose. Trunk straight, with slightly fissured bark, but with a few warts, greyish. Branches flexible, straight, with smooth bark, brown-greyish. Branchlets glabrous or with a short tomentose indumentum, chestnut-greyish. Leaves (2-8 × 0.7-2 cm) from elliptic-lanceolate to oblanceolate, with entire margin, acute, shortly petiolate, slightly coriaceous, glabrous, deep green on the upper side and slightly duller on the underside. Inflorescence in dense terminal racemes, erect. Flowers small (4-7 mm in diameter), white and odorous. Calyx cupuliform, with 4 small teeth, green. Corolla white, in one piece, with elongated tube and 4(5) lobes of the same length. Stamens 2, exserted, borne within the corolla tube. Fruit a kind of globose berry, with black surface, with a membranous endocarp. Seeds 1-4.
Flowering:
April to June.
Fruiting:
September to November.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets in relatively high humidity. It seems indifferent to the type of substrate. In subhumid and humid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region and neighbouring areas of central Europe and the Middle East. In North Africa it is a very rare species, found only in the more humid terrains of central Middle Atlas (Anoceur, Ifrane, Ras el Ma, etc.). Desfontaines cited this species in Algeria (central Kabylia) but its presence here seems doubtful, at least currently.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. In North Africa is very rare. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.