Ilex pubescens seed

LATIN NAME: Ilex pubescens

COMMON NAME: Pubescent Holly

The pubescent holly is a handsome, upright, many-branched, evergreen shrub of the warm hills, and its fine, oval or lance-shaped, softly hairy leaves and its small, inconspicuous, whitish flowers, followed by the small, round, red, glossy berries, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the region. It grows as an upright, many-branched, evergreen shrub, reaching up to three metres or so, with the upright, branching stems bearing the alternate, oval or lance-shaped, pointed, softly hairy, finely toothed leaves and, through the late spring, the small, inconspicuous, whitish flowers, followed by the small, round, red, glossy, few-seeded berries. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the holly family, and it is native to the warm hills of the southern China, while it is prized for its long history of traditional use, and it is known as the pubescent holly.

In the holly family it is the softly hairy, red-berried shrub of the warm hills, a plant that carries the family’s winter berries and a long record of use in the south.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The pubescent holly roots and leaves are a familiar subject in the traditional plant chemistry of the southern China, and the constituents have been worked through by the researchers across the world. The botanists have mapped its place in the holly family and the warm hills of the region, and the wildlife ecologists have watched the winter birds come to the small, round, red berries. The plant is best appreciated as a subject of study rather than a casual remedy, and the growers of the evergreen, berry-bearing shrubs keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the winter garden, the pubescent holly is the red-berried shrub that keeps the colour when the rest of the garden rests. Its small, whitish flowers feed the insects, its glossy, red berries feed the birds of the winter, and the dense, evergreen growth gives cover and shelter through the cold months. The traditional use of the region keeps the plant in the old practice, and it grows well in the moist, well-drained, acid ground of the sheltered spot. Red-berried, evergreen and winter-bright.

Clean the seeds out of the red berries and give them a cold, damp rest in a bag of moist sand in the fridge, then sow them shallowly in pots of loamy, acid, free-draining soil, keep them moist and set the pots in a bright, sheltered spot, and they’ll come along steadily.