Ilex aquifolium
Poisonous plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
holly
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
White
Detailed description
An evergreen much branched shrub or small tree to 12 m tall. Leaves (3-10cm long) alternate along the stem, and are dark glossy green above, paler below, with the characteristic undulating, thick, usually deeply serrate margins, with a spine at the point. Flowers occur as clusters, with 4 white petals (3-5mm long). Conspicuous bright red spherical berries develop in the winter.
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Flowering
October, November
Year naturalised
1901
Origin
W., C., and S. Europe, W. Asia, N.W. Africa
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial
Other information
Poisonous plant
Most parts of this plant are poisonous especially the scarlet red berries.
Etymology
ilex: An old Latin name for the Holm oak, which holly allegedly resembles
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
ILEAQU
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Johnson, A. T. and Smith, H. A (1986). Plant Names Simplified: Their pronunciation, derivation and meaning. Landsman Bookshop Ltd: Buckenhill, UK.