Possomhaw Holly – Ilex deciduas

Possumhaw Holly

O reader! hast thou ever stood to see
The Holly-tree?
The eye that contemplates it well perceives
Its glossy leaves
Ordered by an Intelligence so wise
As might confound the Atheist’s sophistries.

 

By Robert Southey (1774-1843)

 This native of low, wet woods can be found throughout the southeast United States. It is one of the deciduous hollies, meaning it loses its leaves come winter. It is state listed as Threatened in Florida. The largest specimen found to date is located in South Carolina. It measures 3 feet around, and 42 feet tall!

 

The berries are generally considered toxic to humans. The low level toxicity causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. But all manner of small mammals, songbirds, and gamebirds, as well as deer find parts of this bush good eating. The deer being the only one to eat the twigs; all the others find the berries to be a delicacy.

 

Because of those same berries it is often planted as a winter ornamental, and a wildlife attractant. The branches with the berries have been collected to use in Christmas decorations. The wood of this shrub is not considered useful due to its small size.

 

Hollies in general (including this one) were used by the Alabama Indians. They took the inner bark of the tree, made a decoction from it and applied this to the eyes.  

Compact Japanese Holly – Ilex crenata

Japanese Compact Holly

The Japanese or Box-leaved Holly was imported from the Orient where it is native to Chine, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Sakhalin (a large island in the N Pacific belonging to Russia). Depending on the variety you choose for your garden it can be like an exclamation point, drawing attention, or a classic hedge plant enclosing others!

 

It is an evergreen shrub, but without the pointy, sharp leaves we so often associate with Hollies. The leaves do more resemble the Box shrub for which one of its common names derives. It is a slow grower, often keeping the same relative size for years in your landscape structure.

 

As with all Hollies it needs male and female shrubs to produce berries. It blooms with small white flowers around mid-spring. These are followed by dark, almost black drupes with four seeds. The flowers are a wonderful bee attractant, and yet the shrub is deer-resistant.

 

If you want this shrub don’t bother trying the seeds, as they very rarely germinate in cultivation. Instead take semi-hardwood cuttings. These root surprisingly easily! To plant out make sure the soil is acidic and moist, but well drained. If the variety you are growing has solid green leaves full sun is great, but the variegated leaved varieties often need some dappled shade to shine.

 

Some care must be taken with pets and small children. The leaves, but more especially the berries contain Illicin. If a sufficient quantity is consumed then the signs of toxicity are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stupor due to depression of the central nervous system. Fortunately the Illicin produced by the berries and leaves is a bitter that discourages ingestion. The toxicity has never lead to death, and some report that the reports of toxicity are over stated.

Common Winterberry Holly – Ilex vertillata

Winterberry Holly

This is another perennial shrub of eastern North America, which particularly likes wetland habitats (although it can be found in drier conditions). Even though this is a holly the leaves are not pointed, and stiff, and it is not an evergreen, losing all its leaves every fall! When the leaves fall in the autumn, the berries remain, giving it its common name of Winterberry since the berries become the focal point of the bush through winter.

The nick of Fever bush was applied (through translation) from the Native American use of the berries. It has been used in the treatment of dyspepsia, jaundice, diarrhea, gangrene, and dropsy. For the gangrene, and other skin afflictions (such as ulcers, eczema, etc) it is used externally. The berries, when combined with cedar-apples make an effective worm medicine for children.

When the leaves are dried and crumbled they make a tea substitute that is caffeine free. But wild birds such as Cedar waxwings, bluebirds, and robins relish the berries, especially as winter descends and food is scarcer. As the leaves fall and the berries are dominant in the landscape it is easier for the bird’s survival!

Winterberry – Ilex verticillata

Winterberry – Ilex verticillata

One of the other common names is Fever Bush, which is used in reference to how Native Americans used the berries. The berries and the bark are used to treat jaundice, diarrhea, gangrene, indolent ulcers and some skin afflictions. It strengthens the circulation, improves nutrition, and helps in waste disposal in the digestive system.

The berries are bright red and hang on the bush through the cold months attracting cedar waxwings, bluebirds and robins. If the leaves haven’t dropped by the first frost, the leaves turn black (which leads to another common name…Black Alder).

The stems with the berries intact are used in winter floral arrangements to good effect. It is a native bush to the eastern North America from Newfoundland west to Ontario and south to Alabama!

Holly, American – Ilex opaca

Holly

The holly and the ivy,
When they are all full grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown

From an old Irish song “Holly and Ivy”

 

The American holly is the state tree of Delaware. And the small town I live in is named Greenwood, named for the holly forest that surrounds it!

Holly is commonly used all over the world as a Christmas decoration, a custom derived from the early Romans who sent boughs of Holly and other gifts to their friends during Saturnalia, the Roman festival of Saturn held around the 17^th of December in celebration of the Winter Solstice. 

In an old Christian legend the Holly is said to have sprung up under the footsteps of Christ as he trod the earth, the spines of the leaves became symbolic of “Crown of Thorns”, the red berries representing the drops of blood associated with his suffering.

Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) a Roman naturalist in his classic “Historia naturalis”, an old world encyclopedic study of plants and animal life, tells us that if Holly is planted near a house or farm, it would repelled poison and defended it from lightning and witchcraft.

Holly leaves were formerly used as a diaphoretic and an infusion of them was given in catarrh, bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza, pleurisy, and smallpox. They have also been used in intermittent fevers and rheumatism for their tonic properties.

The berries possess totally different qualities to the leaves, being violently emetic and purgative, and if swallowed can cause excessive vomiting. Nicholas Culpeper in his “The Complete Herbal” (1653) say’s that:  “the bark and leaves are good used as fomentations for broken bones and such members as are out of joint”. He also considered the berries to be curative of colic.

Care needs to be taken, for Holly berries can be poisonous if given to children. Even in small doses the bright red berries can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea in kids.

Holly – Ilex aquifolium

Holly tree

I live in a small town, Greenwood. It received its name because at one time the woods surrounding the town were filled with Holly as the understorey trees and shrubs. Today I often see areas where the Holly is still in the understorey, dark green all year long! This spring we found several small hollies struggling to survive in the back portion of our acre. They must have been brought here from over flying birds!

The Holly tree, a tree of myth, a tree sacred to the Witches of old, and still held in great esteem. The ancient Romans used holly in the Saturnalia festivals in winter. The Christians, in attempting to subjugate the pagan belief systems, made Christ’s birth celebration in December and used holly in decorating, first to blend in and later to convince the people they really were not that different! You know the song… ‘Deck the halls with boughs of holly!’

Holly leaves were used in the old herbal practices for lung issues such as catarrh (mucous production in the head), bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza, pleurisy, and smallpox. The berries were not so kind to the body, they cause violent vomiting, and so great care has to be exerted in their use.

The only food use I could find referenced, was the use of the leaves of the Holly in the Black Forest as a substitute for tea. During the American Civil War it was a very popular tea substitute in the South.

Holly Flowers