Add it to your home screen and it opens full screen: no browser bars, one tap away, and everything stays signed in. Free, nothing to download from an app store.
- Tap the Share button in your browser
- Scroll down and choose “Add to Home Screen”
- Open GrowSomeFood from your home screen
- Open your browser’s menu
- Choose “Add to Home screen” or “Install app”
- Open GrowSomeFood from your home screen
Chinese Privet
Widely naturalized as a hedge shrub, Chinese privet has become one of the Southeast's most destructive invasives - forming dense thickets that smother native forests. Never plant it; this entry is for identifying and controlling it.
Safety notes Berries and leaves are toxic - in people usually stomach upset, but larger ingestions by livestock (especially horses) have caused severe poisoning and death. Never dump privet clippings where horses, cattle, sheep, or goats can reach them, and keep berries away from children and pets. Its heavy spring bloom is also a notorious allergy and asthma trigger. The bigger problem is ecological: it smothers native plants. Do not plant it, wear gloves in dense stands, and bag what you cut.
Overview
Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) is a small, twiggy, semi-evergreen shrub that has become one of the most damaging invasive plants in the southeastern United States. Introduced from Asia as an ornamental hedge, it escaped cultivation long ago and now blankets millions of acres of bottomland forest, streamside, fencerow, and woodland edge, forming dense thickets that shade out and crowd native wildflowers, tree seedlings, and shrubs into oblivion.
It's an easy plant to overlook because it looks so ordinary - a nondescript shrub with small opposite leaves - but that ordinariness masks a serious invader. It spreads two ways at once: birds gorge on its abundant blue-black berries and scatter the seed across the landscape, and it also suckers from the roots to expand each clump. This entry is here to help you recognize and control Chinese privet - never to plant it. Its berries and leaves are also toxic - stomach upset in people, but severe poisoning and death in horses and other grazing animals - and its pollen is a notorious allergen, so it's a plant to keep out of your garden, your pasture, and the wild.
The one thing to knowChinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) is a small, twiggy, semi-evergreen shrub that has become one of the most damaging invasive plants in the southeastern United States.
Quick facts
For identification. Not a growing guide.
- Height
- 15 ftRange: 6–30 ft
- Spread
- 10 ftRange: 4–20 ft
- Cold
- Takes hard frostdamaged below -10°F
- Heat
- Struggles above 105°F
- Life cycle
- Perennial, lives about 40 years
- Self-sows
- Yes. Never let it set seed.
- Habitat
- Full sun · Part sun · Part shade · Shade, well-drained soil
Through the year
A field guide through time
Explore the stages to recognize this plant throughout its life.
Stage 1 of 2 · The recurring year
Semi-evergreen thicket growth (identify & control)
year-round, every year
Know this stage
-
Recognize it: small opposite leaves, arching thicket shrub
Chinese privet is a fast, twiggy, semi-evergreen shrub (to small tree) with small, oval, opposite leaves about half an inch to an inch long on arching stems. It forms dense thickets in forest understory, along fencerows, streambanks, and old home sites, shading out everything beneath. If you see a wall of small-leaved shrubs choking a woodland edge, suspect privet.
-
Cut-and-treat stems, pull seedlings, dig small clumps
Control means persistence: hand-pull seedlings when soil is moist, dig or grub out small clumps (get the roots - it resprouts and suckers), and for larger stems use cut-stump herbicide treatment. Foliar herbicide works on regrowth. Mowing or cutting alone just makes it resprout thicker. Bag berries, never let cut stems root or spread, and never dump clippings where horses or other livestock can reach them - privet foliage poisons grazing animals.
Months are typical seasonal windows; climate, variety, and plant age can shift them.
Hazards
Bird-Spread Seed & Root SuckeringSeverity High DisordernowSeason: Sep–MarSeedlings appearing far from any planting, carpets of seedlings under mature shrubs, and vigorous resprouting after cutting or mowing.
Seedlings appearing far from any planting, carpets of seedlings under mature shrubs, and vigorous resprouting after cutting or mowing.
Address both seed source and roots: remove fruiting shrubs, dig or cut-stump-treat clumps to kill the roots, and follow up for several seasons against the seed bank.
Remove fruiting shrubs to cut off the seed supply; never compost or dump berry-laden clippings; clear seedlings before they mature.
Why it spreads so far and resists control: autumn olive produces huge crops of berries that birds scatter widely, seeds germinate readily in disturbed ground, and cut shrubs resprout vigorously from the stump.
Smothering Thickets (ecological harm)Severity High DisordernowSeason: year-roundDense stands of small-leaved semi-evergreen shrubs choking woodland understory, fencerows, and streamsides, especially green thickets in the winter woods.
Dense stands of small-leaved semi-evergreen shrubs choking woodland understory, fencerows, and streamsides, especially green thickets in the winter woods.
Dig or hand-pull small plants (get the roots), cut-stump or basal-bark herbicide on larger stems, treat regrowth, and replant with natives; cutting alone causes vigorous resprouting.
Never plant it; remove seedlings and small clumps early, and take out fruiting shrubs before birds spread the seed.
The core hazard is ecological: autumn olive forms dense, fast-growing thickets on open and disturbed ground - old fields, pastures, edges, and open woods - that crowd out native grasses, wildflowers, shrubs, and tree seedlings, degrading habitat.
Pollen Allergen & Toxic Berries and LeavesSeverity High DisorderSeason: Apr–JunAllergy and asthma flare-ups near flowering privet in late spring; children or pets near the blue-black berries; livestock browsing a fence-line privet stand or a pile of fresh clippings.
Allergy and asthma flare-ups near flowering privet in late spring; children or pets near the blue-black berries; livestock browsing a fence-line privet stand or a pile of fresh clippings.
For any ingestion by a person or animal, contact poison control or a vet at once - do not wait for symptoms in a horse. Manage pollen exposure as seasonal allergy, and remove the shrubs to reduce future bloom.
Never dump or pile privet clippings where horses, cattle, sheep, or goats can reach them - most livestock poisonings come from thrown-over-the-fence prunings. Bag and dispose of what you cut, fence stock away from privet thickets, keep berries away from children and pets, and remove flowering shrubs near living spaces; wear a mask when clearing bloom.
A direct hazard to people and animals: privet's heavy spring bloom sheds pollen that is a notorious hay-fever and asthma trigger, and its berries and leaves are toxic. In people the usual result is stomach upset, but grazing animals - horses and ponies especially, and also cattle, sheep, and goats - have been severely poisoned and killed by eating privet foliage or clippings, with staggering, colic, and collapse. Privet is listed as toxic to horses, dogs, and cats.
Grower tips
Notes from growers, tagged with the zone they grow in. A person reads every post before it appears.
Nobody has posted about Chinese Privet yet.
Free account. Your post shows your grower name and zone, never your email.