What is Holly?

Ilex or Holly refers to more than 500 different types of plants, although people can be the best known with several of them. These varieties can be still green or deciduous and grown around the world. People usually think of some of the characteristics of Holly, which make them recognizable, including red berries, and shiny sharp leaves, which are usually dark green. While many kinds of Ilex are suitable for this characteristic, several of them may have berries in different colors and things like size and shape may vary significantly. Others improved to a height of about 4 to 6 feet (1.22 to 1.83 m). Most plants, like ordinary Holly, Ilex aquifolium , come in male and female forms called diocious. If people grow shrubs or trees to produce berries, they must plant female, and May must also be to set a male plant to produce berries. Hollies tend to depend on pollination to produce fruit.

One of the attractions to planting Ilex is that the fruit enjoys many kinds of birds. The fruit is often present in winter and produces fantastic feed for migrant species. Thus, bird enthusiasts can attract birds by giving them fruit to eat, and strong shrubs or trees can provide excellent hiding in stormy weather. Despite the beauty of often red fruit, this is not safe for human consumption and can cause slight toxicity for the main poisoning. Red berries can be attractive to children and children should learn to be poisonous and avoid them.

Ilex is often associated with Christmas and people can use greens as part of floral household decorations or crop wreaths. From Many Holly plants respond well to pruning, it is definitely fine to remove some branches for this purpose during the winter months. Like many Christmas traditions, bringing Holly nEbo Greens is far from being preceded by Christianity. The greenery in pre -Christian Europe was particularly associated with fertility, a promise of rebirth in the spring and the celebrations of winter suns. It was also believed that they either repel ghosts or are hosting friendly, and sometimes branches were used as believers.

In addition to symbolic uses for Holly, there are many practical. Some species are made for teas like Mate Tea, preferred in South America. Other people used the types of Ilex in herbal medicine. Ilex vomitorium , with his unfortunate name, was used as enetics by some Indian groups.