Narrative

Privet (Ligustrum vulgare) hedges are commonly used because they grow quickly, train easily, and give nice privacy with a minimum of problems. This species was originally native to Europe and the Mediterranean region east to Asia Minor. However, frequent plantings including many hybrids have altered the original range.

This lifeform is frequentlhy domesticated. This lifeform is well known as a landscape plant.

This lifeform is found widely in Eurasia. This lifeform is widespread in North America.

Ligustrum genus (privet) is native to Europe, northern Africa, east and southeast Asia, and Australia. There are about 50 species of shrubs and small trees in this genus. The leaves are opposite and usually entire. The small flowers are usually white in terminal panicles. There are eight species now established in greater North America.

Olive Family (Oleaceae) consists of about five hundred species of various trees and bushes that are found worldwide. Included in this family is the European Olive Tree (Olea europaea) whose fruits are frequently used as food. Ashes, Forsythias, Lilacs, and Privets are also in this family. There are 67 species arranged in 12 genera established in greater North America.

Contortae Order is usually organized to contain the Olive, Gentian, Milkweed, and a few other families. Recently some authorities have removed certain genera from the Gentian Family and placed them in the Menyanthes Family.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.