Weak Too - Privet

A day and night of steady rain followed by a morning snow make any plans for outside work this morning just plain stupid. The fact that snow does not accumulate on standing water just highlights how wet it is out there.

Privet Berries, 28-Sep-2010, from western border of our yard

I used yesterday's rain as an opportunity to stay in and try to convince myself that one of our more common bushes, in both our yard and at the conservation area, is not wild privet (Ligustrum vulgare). I am very sorry to have become almost convinced that it is in fact wild privet, an alien species, native to Europe, that was probably used here, duh, for privet hedges. I have been carefully avoiding cutting this stuff down, hoping that it's really a beneficial plant. But sadly, if it turns out to be any of the many species of privet (Ligustrum spp.), it's not native to anywhere in the western hemisphere, and it's probably considered invasive in North America.

Privet at Skaneateles Conservation Area, 29-Mar-2011.

I ran across the above mass of privet berries while trying to validate my thesis that a sure sign of a plant's nativity was the presence of remaining fruit this time of year. I was hoping that I had been proven wrong. This looked like neither buckthorn nor honeysuckle nor rose bush. Was it a native plant with fruit left at the end of March. Probably not likely.

For now though, I'm letting these bushes stand unless they are clearly crowding out native vegetation or impinging on a trail, which is pretty common.