I got a message yesterday addressed ‘Privet, …’ and spent a few minutes wondering what the sender thought I had in common with Ligustrum.

Ligustrum vulgare (aka 'privet'). Photo from Wikimedia commons.

Then I realized that ‘privet’ is just hello in Russian, transliterated – a much less cryptic greeting than ‘common evergreen shrub!’ Clearly, I am not studying hard enough if it takes me so long to realize the difference between Russian and botany!