Photo by John Cely

The leaves and berries make this one of the most easily recognized species in the eastern United States.

Christmas and the holidays have come and gone, long-gone, and I am reminded, still, every day on my way to work. Many of the fabulously blinking and glittering trees, formerly illuminated through living room windows, have now been flung unceremoniously out onto the street edge, maybe with a few shreds of tinsel weakly fluttering. It's sad, somehow: wreaths, Christmas trees, and of course, discarded chrysanthemums and poinsettia plants out in the cold. Sigh.

    But here's a plant that will be with us all year long, in a way reminding us of Yule-time, past and future, even deep in the summer.

    Our Mystery Plant is hardly a mystery to most readers: it's one of the most easily recognized species in the eastern United States. It's a true North American, although it has plenty of relatives in South America, Europe and Asia. Common in a wide variety of natural landscapes from Massachusetts to Florida, it just gets into Texas and Oklahoma. It is at home in forests along the Mississippi River, and can be seen as far north as southern Indiana. In the Southeast, it is often seen on both dry and damp soils, often quite near the coast, and frequently on floodplains. (It's not very common in our highest elevations, though.) This tree has light colored, finely grained wood which is often used for crafts and finishing work, but it's not an important lumber tree. Tall individuals may be upwards of 50 feet or so, and mature trees often have a columnar shape, the lower branches sometimes dragging the ground. The bark is light grey and rather smooth, almost like American beech. Many of its other American relatives are deciduous, but this one is a true evergreen, holding on to its leathery, prickly leaves for a number of seasons. The spines can be quite stiff, and their number varies from leaf to leaf, sometimes up to 7 or 8 on a side to none at all, but the tip of the leaf is always spined. The trees are either male or female, and of course, only the female trees produce the berries. And what beautiful berries they are.

    They are not exactly true berries in "botanicalese," but they may as well be. Each fruit contains some mealy pulp, for the birds, along with a few hard, ridged seeds. The skin of the berry is commonly deep red, or sometimes orangeish (rarely, even yellow). Rather than being glossy, the berries tend to have a sort of dull, flat finish. In large part because of these beautiful fruits, this species is widely popular as an ornamental, and not just for Christmas. It is a slow-grower, and usually does best with protection from strong winds. If you are thinking of growing one, you'll have plenty of formally named, horticultural varieties to choose from. Hundreds, actually.

 Answer: "American holly," "White holly," Ilex opaca]

John Nelson is the curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina. As a public service, USC offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or call 803-777-8196.

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