Plant: Greenleaf - Holly

Plant description

Greenleaf is a selection of American holly, a native broadleaf evergreen with an open pyramidal habit, thick leathery deep green leaves two to four inches long carrying spiny marginal teeth, and smooth light gray bark often splotched with lichen. Greenish white fragrant flowers bloom from April to June, and female plants with a pollinizer nearby carry bright red to orange berrylike drupes from September into February that feed songbirds and small mammals. It grows slowly in full sun to partial shade on well drained acid to neutral clay, loam or shallow rocky soil and tolerates deer, salt and wind, serving as a screen, hedge, barrier or specimen.

Flowers

Greenish white flowers bloom April to June, male flowers in clusters of three to twelve and female flowers solitary.

Foliage

Thick, leathery, alternate, simple deep green leaves two to four inches long with spiny marginal teeth.

Fruit

Bright red or orange berrylike drupes appear on female plants from September into February; both sexes must be present.

Bark & stems

Bark is light gray to whitish and smooth, often showing lichen splotches.

Native range

Central and eastern USA, PA and MA south through FL, west to TX

Plant details