# Inkberry (Ilex glabra)

> An evergreen holly with glossy, spineless leaves for hedges and screens on damp, acid ground, and black berries all winter on female plants.

Also called gallberry, inkberry holly, bitter gallberry, smooth gallberry, Appalachian tea. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/inkberry/

![Inkberry (Ilex glabra) slender stems hung with glossy black berries among narrow evergreen leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/inkberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Alex Abair, CC BY 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AIlex_glabra_251258596.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 5 to 10 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 10
- Grows wild in: Sandy barrens, the coast, the forest understory, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 20 states, north to Maine, south to Florida and west to Texas (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia)
- Sun: Full, Part, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Slow
- Traits: Evergreen, Hedge or screen, Tolerates wet soil, Wildlife value, Honey tree, Tolerates shade, Salt tolerant, Winter interest, Erosion control
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Inkberry is an evergreen holly of the eastern coastal plain, a rounded, suckering shrub with glossy leaves that carry a few small teeth near the tip. Its berries are black, where the American holly, yaupon and winterberry we grow bear red ones. Its other name, gallberry, is also the name of a highly rated honey that bees make from its flowers. On the southern coastal plain it can make up most of the shrub cover. Connecticut lists it as threatened and Maine as endangered, and it is presumed gone from Pennsylvania. Seedlings grow looser, leggier and more suckering than the compact cultivars sold in garden centers. Grow it as an evergreen hedge or screen on damp ground, where few other evergreen shrubs thrive.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Inkberry grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes an upright, rounded shrub 5 to 10 feet tall and 5 to 8 feet wide. Its roots run just under the surface and send up new stems, so over the years a plant widens into a colony.

Small, greenish white flowers open in May and June, earlier in the far South and later in New England. Bees work them for nectar. On female plants, shiny black berries about a quarter inch across ripen from September into November. They hang on through winter into early spring. At least 15 kinds of birds eat them, wild turkeys and bobwhite quail among them, and raccoons and black bears take them too. It is a host plant of the Henry's elfin butterfly.

It grows wild on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains from Nova Scotia to southern Florida and west to eastern Texas. Its home is pine flatwoods, savannas and pine barrens, and the wetter ground of bogs, seeps and swamp edges.

## How to grow Inkberry

Inkberry does best in full sun and also grows in part shade or shade. It wants an acid soil, sandy or clay, that stays moist, and it takes wet ground and occasional floods. In alkaline soil its leaves turn yellow. It is moderately salt tolerant and takes road salt, but it does not stand dry soil. Pull stray suckers, or give it room to spread. Plant it 4 feet from a wall, and set plants 5 feet apart for a hedge. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires. It is highly flammable, so in fire country keep it out of the space right around a house.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in early spring or early fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Holly seed is slow. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep under mulch, and expect seedlings in the second or third spring. Indoors, keep fresh seed damp at about 60 degrees, and most of it sprouts within four months.

Water weekly through the first two summers, and in dry spells after that. Keep a mulch over the roots, which helps hold them cool. Deer browse it in fall and winter, so cage young plants where deer are many. Prune to shape in early spring, just before new growth begins. Every few years, cut a few of the oldest stems to the ground to keep the plant full.

Inkberry plants are male or female, and only females bear the black berries, so plant a group of three or more so that a male lands among the females. Leaf spot, leaf miners, scale and mites turn up, but none is usually serious. Open, windy sites can burn the leaves in winter. Eating the berries can make a person mildly ill.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Ilex glabra](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ilex-glabra/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Ilex glabra](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=276153)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Inkberry](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/inkberry/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Ilex glabra](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ILGL)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Ilex glabra, Anderson 2001](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/ilegla/all.html)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Ilex chapter, Bonner](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Ilex.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: Inkberry, Ilex glabra, Nesom](https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_ilgl.pdf)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: inkberry](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=344)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Ilex glabra](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.152991/Ilex_glabra)
- [Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection: Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Plants, effective August 5, 2015](https://portal.ct.gov/deep/endangered-species/endangered-species-listings/endangered-threatened--special-concern-plants)
- [Maine Natural Areas Program: Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Plant Taxa, December 2021](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/features/rare_plants/2021_tracking_list.pdf)
- [State rare plant lists read for Ilex glabra: Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board 2025 checklist](https://dnr.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dnr/espb/documents/et-list-review-and-revision/2025-illinois-list-revision/2025-e-t-checklist.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native replacements for burning bush, barberry, privet, Bradford pear and boxwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-replacements-for-burning-bush-and-bradford-pear/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Inkberry, add ?species=inkberry with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=inkberry&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Inkberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=inkberry): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=inkberry
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Inkberry is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=inkberry
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Inkberry needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=inkberry:3
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Inkberry flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.