The Pragmatic Privet Hedge: A Closer Look

March 12, 2016 by rightpouitree 4 Comments

You can hardly get more mundane and pragmatic than a privet hedge. Dull green, prickly plants forming boundary hedges for many homes. Neatly trimmed or a bit scraggly and thinning.

Step a little closer. The hedge is in bloom and bearing fruit.

Closer still. The knobbly buds. The delicate fairy hair blossoms.

The pods and fruit and seeds.

As a child, I used to cook them in mud soups and stews. They looked delicious, but I was  warned not to eat them, for they will poison you, I was told.

 

Come close. But don’t touch.