Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

DECIDUOUS HOLLY

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Ilex decidua Walt.

Riley County, Kansas

Height: Shrubs or trees to 16 feet

Family: Aquifoliaceae - Holly Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Also Called:

Possum-haw.

Trunks:

Dioecious; stems or trunk erect; branches unarmed; bark light brown to gray, smooth except for warty lenticels; wood light yellow, hard.

Twigs:

Light gray, flexible, glabrous; leaf scars half-round; pith yellowish brown to tan; buds grayish brown, ovoid, .05 to .06 inch, apex obtuse to acute, scales glabrous.

Leaves:

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .08 to .28 inch; blade obovate to spatulate, 1.2 to 3 inches long, .4 to 1.2 inch wide, base attenuate to wedge-shaped; margins crenulate to serrulate, rounded to obtuse; lower surfaces light green, pubescent, especially along veins, upper surfaces dark green, glabrous.

Flowers:

Inflorescences terminal on short shoots, staminate fascicles, 2-12-flowered, pistillate fascicles 26-flowered; pedicels .16 to .4 inch. Flowers unisexual, radially symmetric; sepals connate proximally, lobes ovate, .02 to .03 inch; petals connate proximally, lobes white to light yellow, ovate to obovate, .08 to .16 inch; staminate: calyx and corolla lobes 4-5; stamens 4-5; pistillate: calyx and corolla lobes (4-)5, staminodes (4-)5; pistils 1, ovary superior, 2-5-locular; style absent or minute; stigma capitate.

Fruit:

October-November; drupes, bright red to orange, nearly globose, .24 to .35 inch long, .2 to .3 inch wide; stones 4, tan, angular, .16 to .2 inch long, .08 to .14 inch wide, longitudinally ribbed.

Habitat:

Floodplain forests and woodlands, swamps, stream banks, glades, rocky woodlands and ridges.

Distribution:

Southeast 1/4 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Deciduous holly habit