Ilex pedunculosa (male)

Ilex pedunculosa (male) is the pollen partner for one of the most refined and cold-hardy evergreen hollies in cultivation. Like the female, this male longstalk holly carries smooth, spineless, glossy leaves closer to mountain laurel than to a prickly Christmas holly, on a slow, medium to large shrub or small tree of quiet good looks. What the male does not do is fruit; what the male does is make that fruit possible.

Longstalk hollies are dioecious, with male and female on separate plants, and a female sets the signature red, long-stalked berries only with a male in bloom nearby. This plant fills that role, opening small pollen-rich flowers in step with the females and carrying the same clean evergreen foliage and notable cold-hardiness, holding leaves as far north as USDA zone five where most broadleaf evergreens fail.

The species comes from central and southern China, Taiwan, and Japan, and takes both botanical and common names from the long peduncles, the slender stalks that hold the fruit well clear of the branches on female trees. Little known in the trade, longstalk holly has drawn steady praise as among the handsomest evergreen hollies for cooler gardens, and a male plant is the quiet requirement behind every berried female.

Plant this male wherever a female longstalk holly is grown for fruit, and let the dense, spineless, deer-resistant evergreen earn a place as a screen, a background shrub, or a specimen in sun to part shade and moist, well-drained soil. One male covers several females nearby, so a single plant tucked into a border sets the whole group fruiting. Pair the roots with rhododendron, mountain laurel, and other acid-loving evergreens.