Florida Flora Friday: Yaupon Holly

 

Welcome back to the blog. It's time for our second Florida Flora Friday! This time down the rabbit hole, we're looking at yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria). 

The little baby shrub in the pic above is cute, but it won't stay that way for long. I chose it because it'll get bigger (8 to 25 feet tall by 5 to 8 feet wide). There are two planted there, and eventually, they'll form two walls, with a pathway between them. But why yaupon holly? And what's with that off-putting Latin name? Let's talk about it. This will be fun :)

Yaupon Holly

Yaupon holly is native to much of the East Coast, and even down to Mexico. It's a long-lived perennial, a food source for many bird species, and supports native bees. It's super adaptable, too. You can grow it as a specimen tree, trim it to be a hedge, or let it sucker out and create a stand. Female plants produce berries like other hollies, and those provide pops of color during the winter. But because it's a dioecious plant, you'll need a male nearby for pollination.

The leaves also contain caffeine (the highest concentration of any native North American plant) and were traditionally used by Native Americans to create tea. The weird Latin name was applied when European botanists witnessed an indigenous ceremony that involved drinking large quantities of tea to induce vomiting. Note that the tea doesn't make you vomit if you don't overindulge. It's just a nice pick-me-up.

These plants also thrive in a wide range of conditions. They love sand, which is great news for me since that's what we have. Yaupon holly can handle a surprising amount of salt exposure, so it's a good choice for coast dwellers, too. 

One note of caution. The leaves are covered with a coating of wax (not as much as the wax myrtle, thankfully). That makes these an issue if you're in a fire-prone area. If that's you, plant them 30 feet from any structures.

If you want more info about yaupon holly, check out the Florida Native Plant Society entry or the UF/IFAS entry.