Ilex rotunda Seeds | Round-leaved Holly
LATIN NAME: Ilex rotunda
COMMON NAME: Round-leaved Holly
Plant Profile
The Round-leaved Holly is a handsome evergreen tree of the holly family from the warm forests of southern China, Taiwan, Japan and Southeast Asia, growing ten to fifteen metres with a neat, rounded crown of glossy, oval, entire leaves, entire in the sense of un-toothed, which sets it apart from its spiny cousins. The small white flowers open in spring, and the female trees carry dense clusters of small, bright red berries that load the branches in autumn and winter.
In Japan it is the kurogane holly, a standard temple and garden tree whose name means iron, a reference to the hardness of its wood. In southern China its dried bark is the medicine jiu bi ying, a preparation of the regional tradition, which makes this one of the hollies with a working pharmacopoeia record.
Science & Biotechnology
Its medicinal record is the scientific file: the bark, sold as jiu bi ying in southern Chinese pharmacies, has been studied for its triterpenoid and phenolic chemistry, with laboratory work on anti-inflammatory and circulatory effects behind a tradition of use for bruises, colds and circulatory complaints, and the preparation remains a recognised regional drug. Botanically its entire-margined leaves distinguish it within a genus famous for spiny foliage, and the Japanese name records the wood density that also made it a craft timber. Like all hollies it bears male and female flowers on separate plants, and its berries are bird food with mild human toxicity.
The genus’s caffeinated teas come from other species; this holly’s contribution to the pharmacopoeia is bark, not leaf, and the distinction is worth keeping straight.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden it is a refined evergreen: smooth-margined, glossy and berry-loaded, neater in texture than the spiny hollies and well suited to courtyards, screens and temple-style plantings in warm-temperate climates. The winter berries feed birds in waves, and the dense crown takes light shearing.
Its bark medicine, jiu bi ying, belongs with qualified practitioners and the southern Chinese hospital tradition that studies it. For the gardener it is the smoother, calmer holly of the group, and the pairing of sexes is the whole secret of the berry display. In Japan the wood, true to the kurogane name, has served tool handles and craft turnery, and older temple trees are protected as local landmarks.
Growing from Seed
Clean the pulp from ripe berries and sow into a moist, humus-rich compost, leaving the pots outdoors through two winters or stratifying warm-then-cold in sequence before a spring sowing; germination comes late and straggles, so keep the trays going rather than clearing them. Keep the seed shaded and just moist throughout.
Grow the seedlings in part shade for two seasons, pot on deep, and plant out into moist, well-drained soil in sun or part shade, spacing for a twelve-metre crown and setting males among the females. Mulch annually, water in dry summers while young, and shear only after flowering if a formal shape is wanted.
Our Take
The kurogane holly: smooth, glossy, iron-named and berry-loaded, with a bark medicine behind it. The calmest texture in the holly group, for warm-temperate gardens.
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