Yaupon Holly

Description:

Ilex vomitoria, commonly known as Yaupon or Yaupon Holly, is a species of holly that is native to southeastern North America.[1] The word yaupon was derived from its Catawban name, yopún, which is a diminutive form of the word yop, meaning "tree". Another common name, Cassina, was borrowed from the Timucua language.[2] Despite this, it usually refers to Ilex cassine. Yaupon Holly is an evergreen shrub or small tree reaching 5-9 m tall, with smooth, light gray bark and slender, hairy shoots. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptical with a rounded apex and crenate or coarsely serrated margin, 1-4.5 cm long and 1-2 cm broad, glossy dark green above, slightly paler below. The flowers are 5–5.5 mm diameter, with a white four-lobed corolla. The fruit is a small round, shiny, and red (occasionally yellow) drupe 4-6 mm diameter containing four pits, which are dispersed by birds eating the fruit. The species may be distinguished from the similar Ilex cassine by its smaller leaves with a rounded, not acute apex

Habitat:

I. vomitoria occurs in the United States from Maryland south to Florida and west to Oklahoma (only in the extreme southeast)[6] and Texas. A disjunct population occurs in the Mexican state of Chiapas.[1] It generally occurs in coastal areas in well-drained sandy soils, and can be found on the upper edges of brackish and salt marshes, sandy hammocks, coastal sand dunes, inner-dune depressions, sandhills, maritime forests, nontidal forested wetlands, well-drained forests and pine flatwoods.[3]