IlexAquifolium01

Note: These plants can be dangerous if improperly used. The author, and/or ernestartist.org assume no liability for experimentation of use.

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There are a number of native and cultivated, deciduous and evergreen, holly shrubs and trees. Although they are not generally considered very poisonous,the red or black berries do cause disturbances such as vomiting, diarrhea, and stupor when eaten in quantity. They should be considered dangerous to small children.

Holly can tolerate either sun and shade. Although semi-shade is preferable in midsummer, the more light it has the more dense its foliage will be. Holly requires well-drained, slightly acid, fertile soil. English holly will grow to fifty feet or taller, so consider this when you are deciding where to plant your tree. They should not be planted in open areas where they may be exposed to cold winter winds or excessively hot summer sun.

Plant your holly in early spring, before new growth begins and mulch with a 2- to 4-inch layer of wood chips, sawdust, pine needles, ground bark or other coarse material to keep the roots cool and moist. The root system resents being disturbed, so do not cultivate the soil around them. Hollies sometimes drop their old leaves due to transplant shock, but new foliage will soon emerge. Be careful not to over water holly that has lost its leaves. Keep the soil moist during the summer growing season, but allow it to dry somewhat in early fall to allow the season's growth to mature enough to resist winter damage. Feeding should be done in early spring or late autumn with a fertilizer formulated for acid-loving broad-leaved evergreens. If pruning becomes necessary, do it in early spring before new growth begins, trimming towards a symmetrical shape.

The male and female flowers of the holly tree are produced on separate plants. Therefore to ensure berry production, both male and female plants need to be planted. The male tree must be within 100 feet of a female tree of the same species in order for bees to successfully pollinate the female flowers and thereby produce the bright red berries that holly is know for.

The best-known members of the Ilex genus are the common Holly and the Ilex Paraguayensis, or Paraguay tea, from which the drink called Maté is made. The leaves of Ilex aq. are reputed to be equal to Cinchona in the treatment of intermittent fever. Haller commended the juice of the leaves in jaundice, the berries are purgative and emetic. Hale quotes Rafinesque as saying, "The decoction and wine have been used for cough, pleurisy, colic, gout, and rheumatism." Cooper has cured with it pain in spleen. His keynote indication for it is: "Symptoms > in winter." He improved with it a bad case of chronic deafness having this peculiarity. A feeling of irritation in urethra with constant dropping from orifice, probably prostatic, in a man about 50, disappeared after a dose of Ø. Hale quotes an article by Dr. Hendricks in A. H. Z. on the effect of Ilex aq. on the eye. With 5-drop doses of the 1x, given four times a day, Dr. Hendricks cured several cases of "rheumatic inflammation of the eye, with periostitis of the frontal bone, which almost always leads to staphylomatous degeneration of the cornea." Hendricks gives this case: A girl, 17, had been under the most renowned oculists since her fifth year. She had great infiltration of cornea, staphyloma; eyeball looked like a lump of flesh. Nightly burning pains in orbits. Ilex aq. cured completely in six days . Cooper says the diarrhea of Ilex. aq. is accompanied with mucous flux, and he suggests that it may be useful in psilosis (sprue).

The holly bough, especially the female with its berries, is used traditionally as a symbol of Christmas coming. This is actually a takeoff from the same traditional use of a female holly bough by the Romans at the time of their winterfest, Saturnalia, which began on about December 17. A Roman folk tale describes how the flowers of the holly can turn water to ice and how the plant itself wards off lightning and witchcraft. In English lore the holly was thought to be where the ‘little folk’ came and left the ‘other world’. An infusion of the flowers promotes sweating and was used to break a fever. Berry juice was taken for jaundice, but is highly toxic and its use was rare. The native peoples of North America use a leaf tea of I. vomitoria as a purgative for ritual purifications.