Photo: Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Dahoon

Ilex cassine

Also called dahoon holly.

An evergreen holly of southern swamps with glossy, nearly spineless leaves and, on female trees, bright red berries through fall and winter.

EvergreenWildlife valueTolerates wet soilHedge or screenTolerates shadeWinter interestStreet tree

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 20–30 ft
USDA zones: 7–10
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 8 states, north to North Carolina, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 8
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas
Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Dahoon is the evergreen holly of southern swamps, cypress ponds and bay forests, from North Carolina to Florida and west to Texas, and on into the Caribbean. Its glossy, leathery leaves lack the spines of our American holly, with only a few teeth near the tip. The two cross in the wild, and garden hollies have been bred from their hybrids. Its name is thought to come from a Native American word. NatureServe ranks it imperiled in North Carolina and Mississippi, at the edges of its range. As a street tree it fits the tight spaces of downtown plantings and takes some salt spray. Use it as a specimen or a tall screen in a moist corner, where the red berries light up the winter.

Size, growth and what to expect

Dahoon grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It makes a small tree 20 to 30 feet tall and 8 to 15 feet wide, often with several trunks and drooping branches, and some reach 40 feet. The leaves run 2 to 4 inches long, and the thin gray bark turns scaly with age.

Small, greenish-white flowers open from April into June. On female trees, round berries a quarter inch across ripen red, or now and then orange or yellow, in fall. Many hang on through winter and some until spring, and birds, squirrels and other mammals eat them. Bees visit the flowers, and it is a host plant of the Henry's elfin butterfly.

It grows wild on the Coastal Plain from North Carolina to Florida and west to Texas, and in Cuba and the Bahamas. Its home is swamps, cypress ponds, bay forests, marsh edges and the banks of blackwater streams.

How to grow Dahoon

Dahoon grows in full sun or part shade and also takes shade, though its crown is fuller in sun. It does best in a moist or wet, acid soil of sand, loam or clay, like the swamps it comes from. It takes drier ground with watering, but the crown stays thin there. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and 15 feet from overhead wires, since some trees reach 40 feet. Set trees 8 feet apart for a screen.

Saplings ship potted. Its roots resent disturbance, so plant it once, in its final spot, in spring or early fall. Dig a hole wider than the root ball and no deeper, and set the root flare at the soil line. Put the native soil back in and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep under mulch. It may come up the next spring, but holly seed often waits two or three years. For a spring sowing, keep it damp at room temperature for one to two months and then in the refrigerator for two to three months.

Water weekly through the first two summers, and shelter young trees from hard cold near the north edge of its range. It takes pruning well and can be clipped into a hedge or cut back to old wood.

Trees are male or female, and only females bear the red berries, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Bees pollinate the flowers. No pest or disease is of major concern, though a fungal twig gall can form and mites can infest trees on dry sites. Eating the berries can make a person mildly ill.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (8)

Plan the planting