With its spiny dark green leaves and bright red berries, Ilex opaca also known as American Holly is often used in festive holiday decorations. According the the Holly Society of America over 1000 cultivators are making this one of the most popular trees in the world. It is known as the hardiest broadleaf evergreen. Like the Common Holly, the American Holly is another variety in the Aquifliaceae or Holly Family, the difference is that it is native to North America. In addition to the many medicinal uses found for this plant, Native American communities believed it symbolized courage and was often attached to their war shields.
About American Holly
Ilex opaca is found in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts but is absent in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. It is native to the eastern and south-central United States and can be found west to southeastern Missouri and eastern Texas. This upright evergreen tree grows in a pyramidal shape that slowly matures to the height of up to 50 feet in the wild. It is found in woods, forest bottomland, on the edges of swampland, and along coastal dunes starting in Cape Cod and ending in Virginia. The leathery leaves are deep green and have spiny marginal teeth. American Holly has male and female flowers that grow on separate trees making it dioecious. Greenish white flowers bloom in May and June with the male plants having up to 12 flowers growing in clusters and the female plants growing one or two flowers. Both the male and female plants are needed to produce the bright red berries. Bright red or orange fruits known as drupes ripen in the fall on pollinated female trees. The berries stay on the trees through the winter and are a favorite of birds.
Medicinal Uses
The most common Native American use of American Holly was to make tea from the leaves to treat coughs and colds. Native American communities found many medicinal uses for the festive tree. The Alabama made a decoction from the bark and used it as a wash for sore eyes while the Catawba made an infusion of the leaves and used it to treat sores and measles. The Cherokee chewed the berries to soothe colic and would scrunch a handful of leaves and rub them on sore muscles to relieve the pain. The Choctaw made a decoction of the leaves and would use this mixture to soothe sore eyes and the Koasati made an infusion of the bark and rubbed it on the skin to relieve itching.
In addition to medicinal uses, the wood was used to make a variety of cooking tools including wooden spoons. The berries were used to make a dye and sometimes used as buttons.
The genus name, llex comes from the Latin name Quercus ilex for holm oak and refers to the similarity of their leaves.
Archeologists have found ritual shell-cups with holly residue dating to 1,200 B.C.
Other names for American Holly are White Holly, Prickly Holly, Evergreen Holly, Christmas Holly, and Yule Holly.
Resistant to salt spray, American Holly is planted to restore damaged coastal areas.
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