It is the holiday season now and shiny green holly with its bright red berries is here. In Texas, we have a holly that grows wild: yaupon (Ilex vomitoria), an ugly name for a beautiful plant.
Yaupon (pronounced yo-pawn) is an evergreen shrub or small tree (ours are up to 20 feet tall) in the holly family. Found in Southeast and Central Texas, this slow-growing species has both male and female trees. They often multiply by sending new sprouts up from the roots, forming dense thickets along stream and pond margins and in shallow swamplands. In fact, my husband has used them for topiary; their small leaves and dense branches lend well to this art form. On six acres of land, we have hundreds of bushes.
Small white flowers occur from March to May. The local bees love the early flowers, providing a very dark, strong-tasting honey; I really like it, but I think one needs a trained palette to appreciate it.
Fruiting occurs from October through November. The bright red fruits provide great winter holiday decorations and serve as a food source for wild turkey, quail, and many songbirds-although it seems to give them mild diarrhea, which I have personally observed when the great flocks of robins migrate through our area.
Whitetail deer browse the young twigs and leaves. The almost-white wood is hard and durable but the trees are too small for the wood to be of any real economic value. I do have a friend who uses them to make distinctive walking sticks.
In my next blog, I’ll give you the recipe for making a great caffeinated tea from the leaves.
Wendy
