Ilex cassine (female)

Ilex cassine, the dahoon holly, is an elegant evergreen native of the southern wetlands, and this is a fruiting female, the sex that carries the crop of small, glossy red berries. Unlike the fiercely spined American holly, dahoon holds narrow, smooth-edged, bright green leaves that are a pleasure to plant near a path, and in fall and winter the branches string themselves with scarlet fruit against that clean green. Grown as a large shrub or a small tree, dahoon is one of the most useful evergreen hollies for the South.

A word every holly buyer should hear: this is a dioecious plant, with male and female flowers on separate plants, so a female like this one will only set berries when a male dahoon, or another compatible holly blooming at the same time, grows within reach of the bees. Plant a male somewhere nearby and the reward is heavy, reliable fruit; plant a female alone and the berries will not come. The small greenish-white spring flowers feed bees, and the winter berries feed the birds.

Dahoon is a plant of swamps, pond edges, and wet flatwoods along the coastal plain from the Carolinas to Texas, and takes happily to wet ground, standing water, and heavy rain where many evergreens sulk. In the garden the plant is more forgiving still, thriving on ordinary moist, acid soil in full sun or part shade, asking mainly that the roots not bake dry. Growth is steady rather than fast, building over the years into a dense, glossy screen.

Use Ilex cassine as an evergreen screen or hedge, a berrying specimen, or a small tree for a rain garden, a pond margin, or any low, wet spot that needs a handsome, non-prickly evergreen. The persistent red fruit brings birds through the winter, and the smooth foliage makes the plant safe and pleasant beside walks and seating. For a native, wildlife-friendly, wet-tolerant evergreen holly, few match the easygoing dahoon.