Haul Out the (Florida Native) Holly!

‘Tis the festive season, and holly is popping up all over the place! Traditionally, Christmas holly is portrayed as European Holly (Ilex aquifolium), with its shiny sharp-toothed leaves and bright red berries. Here in Florida, we have our own native hollies – 11 of them, in fact. Three of these, shown below, can be found in the MOSI butterfly garden and tree grove.

Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria):
Yaupon Holly is a common evergreen shrub in Florida, found in many environments. With its stiff leaves and bright red berries, it looks enough like “traditional” Christmas holly to use for decorations, but beware – that botanical name was given to this holly for a reason. The leaves can be used as an emetic, while the twigs and young leaves can be boiled into a tea containing caffeine. If you decide to use this holly for decorating, be sure that young children or pets don’t decide to snack on it!

Dahoon Holly (Ilex cassine):
Dahoon Holly is common in wetlands throughout Florida,although it can be grown in drier environments if well-watered during establishment. The leaves are flat and mid-green, with small white flowers in the spring followed by berries in the fall. The berries are red or orange, and will last for several weeks in water as part of holiday decorations. Dahoon can be grown from seed – when berries are completely ripe, crush them and plant immediately.


American Holly (Ilex opaca):
American Holly is more common in Northern Florida, but we have one here at MOSI in the Historic Tree Grove. The original tree can be found on the site of Mount Vernon, where it was apparently a favorite species of George Washington. This holly is used widely in the US for holiday decorations, as the leaves most closely resemble European Holly. The berries ripen to a dark red, although ours must be so delicious that the local songbirds just can’t wait, since ours never seem to be around long enough to reach that color!


BEWARE THE HOLLY IMPOSTER!
When early colonists settled Florida, they longed for the holiday colors of holly, but quickly found our climate was all wrong for the European Holly they tried to grow here. Apparently they didn’t discover (or weren’t satisfied with) our native hollies either, because they instead imported what we now know to be the incredibly invasive Brazilian Pepper. Over 700,000 acres of Florida are infested with this exotic invasive, choking out native eco-systems that support our native species and costing the state of Florida hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in eradication efforts (with only partial success so far).  Under no circumstances should this plant be cultivated in Florida – if you already have it, you should make every effort to remove it.

Besides, why would you want an exotic invasive that provides little wildlife value, when you can have native hollies that provide berries for our songbirds and host plants for our butterflies? There’s a Florida holly for every environment – add them to your landscape now and to your holiday decorations as well!