Looking for a lovely and useful plant for your garden? Consider the Ilex vomitoria! Also known as yaupon holly, yaupon, or cassina, this species of holly is native to southeastern North America, from Maryland to Florida and Texas. It boasts smooth, gray bark and glossy dark green leaves, and produces beautiful quarter-inch scarlet fruit in large quantities. The plant takes well to pruning and is adaptable to various soil types.
The leaves are small, leathery and bright green and are not prickly like other hollies. The flowers attract bees and butterflies. This holly can rapidly reach 10 to 20 feet tall and 8 to 12 feet wide, so allow proper spacing when planting multiples. It will form thickets unless the suckers are removed.
Though occasionally used for hedging, it is primarily used for landscaping. The wood of the Ilex vomitoria is heavy and hard, making it useful for turnery, inlay work, and other woodenware. The plant is also culturally significant: Native Americans used the leaves and stems to make a tea containing caffeine, a unique quality in a North American plant. Rediscovered in modern times, yaupon tea made from dried leaves is now commercially available. Add this picturesque and useful plant to your garden today!
Grow as a container plant or outside in zones 7-9.