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Tree Project.
Holly – Ilex Aquifolium.
Holly bushes and trees
are of course widespread and native to the UK with well over 500 known
species. Most are evergreen with tough, leathery leaves, but a few are
deciduous and typically Hollies grow to between 30 and 50 feet easily
living up to 100 years with one specimen said to be 600 years old.
Generally, Hollies are fairly slow growing with a few dwarf varieties
only growing inches a year to no more than a few feet. Because of their
dens habit and prickly leaves they are often used to make impenetrable
hedges in fields to keep in livestock and in gardens to make secure
boundaries.
Holly Trees will re-grow from bare, stunted trunks after being felled
and can be pollarded to make them an ornamental “Lollipop,” shape.
Indeed they can be clipped very tightly as hedges and can even be used
for Topiary to make artistic green shapes in the Garden.
Most varieties of Holly are prickly but it is interesting to note that
the higher you go into a Holly Tree the less prickly the leaves are.
This is probably because the prickles were created as a defence
mechanism against browsing animals eating them and therefore there was
no need to have prickles on higher leaves. Indeed, Deer will eat most
things, but they won’t eat the bitter Holly Leaves. With so many types
of Holly there are many variations in leaf types from the extremely
prickly Ferox, or Hedgehog Holly, to the non prickly and small, Ilex
Vomitora, or Yaupon Holly. This Holly is of particular interest, because
it is one of the few plants that contains a useable source of Caffeine.
Native American tribes were said to brew the leaves to make themselves a
type of drink.
Although Hollies themselves are easy to grow it is difficult to grow any
other plants underneath them, because their tough leaves don’t easily
rot and kill most foliage growing underneath.
Of course Hollies are well known for their Berries that are produced
after they flower. Male and Female flowers are borne on separate Trees
so to get Berries you need to have trees of both sexes present. The
flowers are very alike on both male and female plants making them
difficult to sex. Indeed even the experts make mistakes sometimes,
because when the silver variegated Holly variety of Silver Queen was
named it was not realised that it was a Male plant and the golden
variegated plant Golden King was in fact a Female plant!
The Berries of most Hollies are usually red although they can be yellow
as in Aquifolium Bacciflava.
Wildlife of all sorts love to eat the berries and it is relatively easy
to germinate the seeds that they contain. However, Berries need to be
chilled over-winter to get them to germinate. This process is called
stratifying, or sometimes vernalisation.
Traditionally Holly has been used to make Christmas decorations
including Wreaths, Garlands, Swags and even table decorations that will
last for weeks outdoors. This tradition has been going on for centuries,
going right back to the times of the Druids, Celts and Romans who
thought that the green winter holly had magical qualities and would
bring back spring.
Holly has long traditions in Christianity as well because it was used to
symbolise Christ's crown of thorns. The red berries represented Christ’s
blood and the long lasting green of the leaves showed life after death.
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