Ilex cassine

Ilex cassine
Ilex cassine leaves and immature fruits
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Aquifoliales
Family: Aquifoliaceae
Genus: Ilex
Species:
I. cassine
Binomial name
Ilex cassine
Natural range in United States

Ilex cassine is a holly native to the southeastern coast of North America that grows from Virginia to the Colorado River in Texas, with subspecies growing southward on the Gulf Coast as far as Veracruz, Mexico, and in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas in the Caribbean. It is commonly known as dahoon holly[2] or cassena, the latter derived from the Timucua name for I. vomitoria.[3]

It is a large shrub or small tree growing to 12 meters (39 ft).[4] The leaves are evergreen, 6–15 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, glossy dark green, entire or with a few small spines near the apex of the leaf. The flowers are white, with a four-lobed corolla. The fruit is a red drupe, 5–6 mm in diameter, containing four seeds.[5][6][7]

As with other hollies, it is dioecious with separate male and female plants. Only the females have berries, and a male pollenizer must be within range for bees to pollinate them.

  1. ^ Rhodes, L.; Maxted, N.; Stritch, L. (2018). "Ilex cassine". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T20678718A20695061. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T20678718A20695061.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Ilex cassine". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2011-09-20.
  3. ^ Austin, Daniel F. (2004). Florida Ethnobotany. CRC Press. pp. 590–591. ISBN 978-0-8493-2332-4.
  4. ^ Edwards, Adam L.; Bennett, Bradley C. (June 2005). "Diversity of Methylxanthine Content in Ilex cassine L. and Ilex vomitoria Ait.: Assessing Sources of the North American Stimulant Cassina" (PDF). Economic Botany. 59 (3): 277. doi:10.1663/0013-0001(2005)059[0275:DOMCII]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0013-0001.
  5. ^ Florida Department of Environmental Protection: Florida's Hollies Archived 2010-02-09 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan ISBN 0-333-47494-5.
  7. ^ "Ilex cassine Fact Sheet". Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2008-05-07.