There are 7,500 trees in Alexandra Park and Stephen Middleton from the brilliant Friends of Alexandra Park is introducing us to them one by one.,.
Privet Drive was home to Harry Potter. A lot of people are familiar both with the wizard and garden privet, a shrub commonly used to make hedges in suburban gardens. Our tree of the month is the Glossy Privet or Chinese Tree Privet (Ligustrum lucidum). It is a tree-sized relative of the garden privet, but with much larger leaves. This tree can be found just below the terrace of Alexandra Palace. Stand with your back to the Rose Window. This tree is just to the right of the stairs. If you prefer, you can find it on the WhatThreeWords app. using petal, test and keep.
Glossy privet comes from China where it has been used in traditional medicine for many years and has more recently been employed in certain cancer treatments. The fruits are, however, toxic.
In its native land, the Chinese tree privet is host to a scaled insect that deposits a waxy secretion, Chinese wax, on the trees. This was harvested and treated then used to manufacture candles and also to make “sizes” – substances used to combine with paper to make it less absorbent.
The scientific name translates as shining or bright privet. This refers to the evergreen leaves which are shiny on the top side, but dull underneath.
Glossy Privet has become an invasive species in parts of the United States and Australasia, but has not caused any problems so far in the UK.
The tree can grow to over 10 metres in height in this country and is late flowering. At the time of writing (late July) the flowers have not quite opened yet, but that will happen during August. The flowers are small, but appear in panicles like garden privet, buddleia and lilac. The scent of the flowers rather divides opinion with some liking it and others finding it quite unpleasant. The berries (technically called drupes) are produced in late autumn.
There is a matching glossy privet tree towards the other end of the terrace at the far side of the other set of steps and between the two sets of steps you could also look out for the Magnolia grandiflora trees flowering.
