| Botanical name: |
Ilex opaca Aiton |
| Common
name: |
American holly |
| Group: |
dicot |
| Family: |
Aquifoliaceae |
| Growth
Type: |
tree
shrub |
| Duration: |
perennial |
| Origin: |
native |
| Plant
height: |
to 40' |
| Bark: | light gray, very smooth, often covered with a variety of lichens |
| Foliage: |
alternate, simple, evergreen, shiny dark green spiny toothed margin, older leaves thick and leathery; |
| Flower and fruit: |
greenish-white; fruit is red (occasionally yellow) berrt kuje dryoe |
| Flowering/fruiting time |
blooms late May to late June; fruits Ocober to November |
| Habitat: |
throughout the Coastal Plain, most abundant on the coast strip |
| Range
in
New Jersey: |
well-drained, moist ground of mixed, deciduous woods |
| Heritage ranking if any: |
n/a |
| Distribution: |
 |
| Misc.: |
American holly is dioecious (separate male and female plants).
Witmer
Stone, 1910, writes "The Holly is especially characteristic of the
Coastal strip, and there it is that we find it rising to the full
dignity of a tree, with trunk nearly or quite a foot in diameter, and
its grayish-white bark gleaming through the masses of shining green
leaves. Here, too, it produces berries most abundantly, and trees on
protected ground are a gorgeous show during the autumn and winter.
The
vandalism of the Christmas peddlers...is largely responsible for the
dwarfed barren condition of most of the Holly of West Jersey, but the
importation of vast quantities of Holly and Mistletoe from the south to
Philadelphia has largely done away with this, as it is easier for
venders to secure a supply from the wholesalers on the river front than
to bring their own Holly from New Jersey. On the coast many of the
finest trees are cut down every year in effecting so-called
improvements incident to the opening or enlarging of a seaside resort,
but certain cottagers have carefully preserved the Hollies and enclosed
them in their grounds"(539-540).
Holly is found in maritime forests and is resistant to salt spray.
History of the Holly-"Mr. Holly" and the "Holly City" can be found here.
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Sources
**USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 2: 486. |
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