Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Ilex x attenuata aurea and Ilex vomitoria...two lovely native hollies















Strictly speaking the gold fruited selection is a hybrid between two native hollies, Ilex cassine and Ilex opaca. The red berries belong to Ilex vomitoria, or Yaupon. Yaupon is a southern holly as is Ilex cassine. Neither is widely distributed this far north, but both are hardy here. As climate changes bring warmer winters farther north, these two SE taxa may be reasonable choices as far north as coastal New England.

1 comment:

WashingtonGardener said...

Lovely - mine are mere twogs - can;t wait until they grow big enough for full fruiting.