PHOTO JMilarch 2001
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PHOTO JMilarch 2001 |
| National Champion
| American Holly Ilex opaca Holly Family — Holly Genus Hugley, Chamber County, Georgia Circumference = 125 inches (10.4 feet)
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American Holly, also called White Holly, or simply Holly, is a slow-growing, long-lived, attractive evergreen tree with narrow, rounded, dense crown of spiny leaves, small white flowers and bright red berries. One of the most universally recognized eastern trees, it is native to the eastern, southeastern and southcentral regions of the U.S., and grows in several soil types, but is generally found in deep, moist bottomlands, often in association with sweet gum, red maple, hackberry, southern red oak, and southern magnolia.
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PHOTO JMilarch 2001 |
American Holly is a species, especially popular in the autumn and near Christmas. Of all native hollies, this is the most sought-after, and planted as an ornamental, because of its evergreen spiny leaves and bright red berry clusters. Collection of fruiting foliage sprays from wild and planted trees is a sizable business, and because of overharvesting, this decorative plant is less common than formerly in some areas. Many improve varieties are grown for ornament, shade and hedges.
American Holly has over 300 varieties or cultivated forms. Though reported to be toxic to some animals, the bitter berries are eaten by over 20 species of mammals, songbirds and gamebirds, including thrushes, mockingbirds, robins, catbirds, grouse, quail, bobwhite, and wild turkey. In this way, it seems to be extending its range northwards.
American Holly's peculiarly ivory white, fine textured wood is tough, dense, and turns brown with age and exposure to air. The tree is generally too small to yield commercial quantities of wood specimen, but has been used to make small wooden wares, and special products such as piano keys, ship models, handles, carvings, rulers, and cabinet inlays. The wood can be dyed various shades, including black.
IdentificationSize: 40 to 70 feet high, rarely 100 feet; 1 to 2 foot diameter, rarely 4 feet; trunk straight and short with pyramid-shaped crown
Range: Eastern Massachusetts south to central Florida, west to south central Texas and north to southeast Missouri; to 4000 foot elevations, higher in Appalchians. Reaches its greatest abundance on coastal plains of the south,itrs largest size in Texas, and greatest beauty in Carolina foothills.
Habitat is many types of moist or wet well-drained soils, especially floodplains and bottomlands in mixed hardwood forests
Leaves are simple, alternate, evergreen, spreading in two rows, thick, stiff, leathery, dull glossy green above, yellow-green beneath, 2 to 4 inches wide, elliptical, wavy margins, spiny-pointed and coarsely spiny-toothed
Flowers appear in spring (May and June), with 4 rounded white petals, 1/4 inch wide, male and female on separate trees in short clusters at base of new leaves and along twigs, male flowers in 3- to 12-flowered clusters; female flowers solitary or in 2s or 3s
Fruit is bright red or orange, rarely yellow, berry-like, rounded to egg-shaped, 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter (pea-size), bitter pulp, 4 brown irregular grooved nutlets, scattered, short stalked, maturing in autumn, remaining attached in winter
Bark is thin to moderately thick (.5 inch), light gray to yellowish-brown, thin, smooth or rough and warty
Twigs are brown or gray, stout, covered with fine, rust-colored hairs when young, becoming smooth and pale brown with age
Buds are .1 to .3 inches long, pointed or rounded at tip, covered with narrow, overlapping scales
Wood is ivory white, fine textured, tough, dense, medium weight and hardness, and turns brown with age and exposure to air
Similar Species: English Holly (Ilex aquifoliium) leaves are only 3/4 to 1.5 inches long
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