The American Holly, mistletoe and bittersweet.

Probably no plant is more symbolic of the holiday season than the American Holly.  Of course there is the Christmas Tree, the most famous symbol of all, but shrinking down to plant size, Holly has to take the crown.  And after all, though lots of people have Poinsettia in their homes and offices, Poinsettia is not native to our North American clime.  Oh, yes, there is also the mistletoe, and New Jersey is, in fact, famous for mistletoe as well as for holly.

Although holly is considered a shrub, it can grow to tree size even 245 to 60 feet tall!  I am most fortunate in having the kind of soil and yard that holly likes.  There are probably more than half a dozen good size hollies in my yard, some as tall as my house, but my house is one story.  I LOVE the bright red berries that brighten the yard in winter when all the leaves are finally gone and the yard is a dull  brown - then I look down the drive and my queen of holly shrubs shines its glossy green leaves and waves its red berry bangled branches and everything looks cheerful again.

Interesting fact:  hollies are "dioecious" meaning there are male and female plans and you must have both, and close to one another, in order for them to make berries and flowers.  Bees and Birds Love the Holly and butterflies lay their eggs at the base of the flower buds each year.

Holly is a symbol of Christmas from pre-Christian times.  Along with the evergreen tree, the bright and vigorous endurance of these hearty winter survivors gave people hope of making it through the cold Northern European winter season.  Their decorative beauty made them a top choice for decorating homes and churches in days gone by.  

A New Jersey connection:
"Elizabeth White (of Whitesbog Village near Browns Mills) experimented with one more type of plant: the American holly, ilex opaca. She even founded her own nursery business—Holly Haven, Inc.—and is credited with having helped to rescue the American holly from obscurity. She was even one of the first members of the Holly Society of America, founded in 1947.  Elizabeth White was most famous for successfully cultivating the blueberry at her family's cranberry bog plantation. 


Mistletoe:  "Mistletoe is most often found dangling over doorways at Christmastime, customarily with the promise of a kiss.

But the rare plant also drapes the forests of South Jersey, growing in twisted tree limbs 50 to 60 feet in the air. The trick is getting to it. Enter the mistletoe hunter. And his shotgun.  Squinting skyward, they stalk treetops for clumps of green. When hunters spot the coveted flora, they squeeze the trigger, pumping a bullet into the branch so it falls to the ground.  "Shooting mistletoe is how most people collect it," says David Snyder, a botanist from the New Jersey Office of Natural Lands Management. "It’s so high up that it’s difficult to get. The only other options are to cut down the tree or have utility people saw off the branches. We haven’t developed a better scientific method of collection."

The tradition continues to this day, although it is increasingly obscure. Mistletoe is categorized as endangered, protected by state law, as is bittersweet, pictured below.