[184] Ilex aquifolium, Holly

[184] Ilex aquifolium, Holly

Introduction

Ilex aquifolum, Holly, is the very familiar evergreen shrub with spiky leaves and red berries, used in Britain as a Christmas decoration.

You can guess what is coming next … All the other five or six hundred species of Ilex are called Holly, and Ilex aquifolium is Common Holly, English Holly, European Holly or sometimes Christmas Holly

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)

Order – Aquifoliales (Holly and some small, obscure groups)

Family – Aquifoliaceae (only one extant genus)

Genus – Ilex

Scientific Name – Ilex aquifolium

Cultivars are available.

Name

Holly is an old English word from Germanic roots

Ilex is Latin for the Holm Oak, Quercus ilex. It is not clear why Linnaeus used it for Holly and even in the Nineteenth Century it was used for both Oak and Holly, which have superficially similar leaves. (The Holm of Holm Oak is cognate with Holly.) Aquifolium is a corruption of acri-folium meaning sharp-leaf.

Description

The general impression is that Holly is an evergreen shrub with sharply spined leaves and red berries, but its attributes are not so definite. It can grow as a robust tree; the upper leaves of mature trees have no spines; and berries are only found on female plants.

It is a slow-growing plant that can grow to a height of ten metres but is almost always seen either as a shrub or a small tree.

The dark shiny leaves are recognizable, but the flowers are not so often seen. They are small and differ between male and female plants.

Bright red berries (technically drupes) appear in Autumn. Their bitter taste often leaves them uneaten until the winter when frost has made them softer.

You can see non-spiky leaves in the last picture above and below.

Habitat and use

Holly is native to the UK, France and other parts of Europe and western Asia and it is often found as undergrowth in forests.

It is widely cultivated in parks and gardens, sometimes used for hedges where its spikes protect it. It has many varieties and variegated cultivars (generally dark green bordered in pale yellow) are popular.

Holly was used by the Romans in the feast of Saturnalia long before it became associated with Christmas. Its attractive evergreen leaves and red berries make it suitable for decorative wreaths and it has been immortalized in the carol, ‘The Holly and the Ivy.’ I won’t go into all the symbolism in the words here, but you can find similar analogies in [252] the Bluecrown Passionflower.

Other Notes

Holly is one of the few plant species that seems truly wild but is not considered as a weed. It does not grow among crops and it is normally allowed in woodland where it does not disturb the trees.

See Also

There are associations with [170] Ivy as a Christmas decoration and the two may be found together.

The Peruvian native tea-like drink, yerba mate, comes from a species of Ilex.