Yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria 'Virginia Dare'), small glossy evergreen leaves with translucent orange winter berries
Yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria 'Virginia Dare'), small glossy evergreen leaves with translucent orange winter berries
Pollinator Drought Tolerant Deer-Resistant Edible Medicinal Native

Yaupon Holly 'Virginia Dare'

Ilex vomitoria (female) 'Virginia Dare'

$28.00
1 Gallon USDA Zones 7–10 Full Sun and Part Shade Matures 8–10 Feet

The orange-berried, female form of North America's only caffeine-bearing native, Ilex vomitoria 'Virginia Dare' is the evergreen yaupon behind the Indigenous 'black drink.' Selected on the Carolina coast and named for the first English child born in America, these shrubs shear cleanly into hedges and hold translucent orange fruit through winter.

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The Full Story

Yaupon holly is a small-leaved evergreen shrub or small tree of the southeastern United States, native from coastal Virginia south to Texas. Adaptable to a fault, salt tolerant, drought tolerant, and willing in sun or shade, yaupon takes shearing as gracefully as any boxwood, which has made the species a Southern mainstay for hedges, topiary, and clipped evergreen structure. The tiny white spring flowers are easy to miss, but the bees do not miss them, and on female plants they give way to a heavy crop of small, translucent berries that hang on well into winter.

Long before any of that, yaupon was the source of the caffeinated 'black drink' of the coastal tribes, brewed from roasted leaves and twigs for ceremony and trade, and later taken up as a coffee or tea substitute by inhabitants of the Virginia and Carolina coast. North America's only caffeine-bearing native plant, yaupon is enjoying a quiet revival today as a homegrown tea.

'Virginia Dare' is an orange-fruited selection made in Dare County, North Carolina by B. Bauers, Sr., and named for Virginia Dare, the first English child born in North America. Taller than many forms and reliably fruitful, these plants suit a clipped or informal hedge. Plant a male yaupon nearby to ensure fruit set.

Photo credit to the Tyler Rose IDEA Garden
Will this plant thrive in your zone?

Explore this plant’s medicinal profile
Plant Profile
At a glance
Hardiness
USDA Zones 7–10
Sun
Full Sun, Part Shade
Soil
Well-drained
Mature size
Height 8–10 Feet · Spread 6–8 Feet
Growth rate
Moderate to Fast
Seasonality
Evergreen
Design Notes

One of the South's most useful evergreens for clipped structure: a sheared or informal hedge, a screen, a topiary, or the bones of a knot garden, and equally at home in a coastal planting for the salt tolerance. The orange winter berries feed birds and read warmly against the dark foliage, so site where the fruit can be seen. Tough in sun or shade, though fruiting and density improve with sun. Plant a male yaupon nearby for berries.

Flower, Fruit & Foliage

Tiny white spring flowers; abundant translucent orange berries on female plants from fall into winter

Flower. Tiny, four-petaled white flowers crowd the previous year's stems in April and May, inconspicuous one by one but produced by the thousand and worked steadily by bees.

Fruit. On female plants, a heavy set of small, translucent orange berries ripens in fall and holds through winter, feeding songbirds; a male yaupon nearby ensures a good crop.

Foliage. Small, glossy, oval evergreen leaves on fine gray twigs, dense and even, taking close shearing without complaint.

Care

Read our full care guide

Light. Full sun to full shade; densest growth and heaviest fruit in sun.

Soil. Adaptable to most soils; tolerant of drought, salt spray, and occasional flooding.

Water. Moderate; very drought tolerant once established.

Pruning. Shears beautifully; clip anytime for hedges and topiary, harder in late winter.

Hardiness. USDA zones 7 to 10.

Medicinal & Traditional Use
Traditional profile
Tradition
Indigenous American
Parts used
Leaves, Twigs
Preparation
Roasted leaf and twig infusion (tea), Decoction (traditional black drink)
Active compounds
Caffeine, Theobromine, Theophylline, Ursolic acid, Chlorogenic acid, Polyphenol antioxidants
Research evidence
3 / 5
Traditional uses
General WellnessMental & Emotional Well-beingDetoxification & Cleansing
History & tradition

Yaupon holly is North America's only caffeine-bearing native plant, and the roasted leaves and twigs were the source of the "black drink," known as asi or cassina, brewed by Indigenous peoples of the Southeast for the Green Corn ceremony and other gatherings, and traded widely as a stimulant tea. Early European observers, witnessing the ritual purging that sometimes accompanied these ceremonies, assumed the plant itself caused vomiting and gave the species the name vomitoria; modern understanding attributes that purging to fasting, sheer volume, or other ceremonial additives rather than to the holly, which is not emetic in ordinary use.

The leaves carry caffeine along with theobromine, theophylline, and a high load of antioxidant polyphenols, the same broad chemistry as the related South American mate and guayusa, and yaupon is enjoying a revival today as a homegrown tea. Early research, including in vitro work at Texas A&M, points to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, though the evidence is still preliminary.

This is traditional-use and early-research information, shared for interest only, and not medical advice.

References & research
  1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225473170_Ilex_Vomitoria_Ait_Yaupon_A_Native_North_American_Source_of_a_Caffeinated_and_Antioxidant-Rich_Tea
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria
  3. https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/ethnobotany/Mind_and_Spirit/stimulants.shtml
Please note

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is shared for traditional and educational interest only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional before any medicinal use.

  • Contains caffeine.
  • The concentrated traditional black drink was linked to ritual vomiting, attributed to fasting, large volumes, or other additives rather than the holly itself.
  • Traditional and early-research information only, not medical advice.
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