Photo: Alex Abair, CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mountain Winterberry

Ilex montana

Also called mountain holly, big-leaved holly, large-leaf holly, Ilex monticola.

A deciduous holly of moist Appalachian slopes, with leaves up to 6 inches long and red fruit larger than most hollies bear, a favorite of birds.

Wildlife valueTolerates shade

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 20–40 ft
USDA zones: 5–10
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: The Appalachians, rich moist slopes, rocky ground and the forest understory
Native range: 14 states, north to New York, south to Georgia and west to Alabama
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Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia
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Mountain winterberry is a deciduous holly of Appalachian forests, a shrub or small tree. Prominent veins give its thin leaves a wrinkled look, and most of them are about 4 inches long. NatureServe ranks it secure overall but critically imperiled in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey, at the edge of its range. Massachusetts and New Jersey list it as endangered. Plant it at a woodland edge or on a moist, wooded slope, where birds find the fruit in fall.

Size, growth and what to expect

Mountain winterberry grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It commonly grows to 20 feet, and some trees reach 40 feet or more.

Small greenish-white flowers, a quarter inch across, open in May and June. Bees visit them, including Colletes banksi, a bee that specializes in holly flowers. On female trees, round fruit up to half an inch across ripens orange-red to red in September. Birds and small mammals favor it, and it lasts only a short time on the branches.

It grows in the Appalachians from western Massachusetts and New York to north Georgia, on moist wooded slopes, ridges and ravines. It ranges from 45 to 6,100 feet above sea level, and at lower elevations it rarely grows in headwater wetlands and bogs. In New England it grows on talus and rocky slopes.

How to grow Mountain Winterberry

Mountain winterberry grows in sun or part shade, in an average, moist, acid soil that drains well. It has some tolerance for drought. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and 15 feet from overhead wires, since some trees reach 40 feet. Set plants 12 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Holly seed has a deep dormancy and comes up slowly. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep under mulch, and expect seedlings in the second or third spring.

Water weekly through the first two summers. Deer browse it, and browsing can hold back wild plants, so cage young plants where deer are many. It flowers on the current season's growth, so shape it in late winter if it needs pruning.

Trees are male or female, and only females bear the red fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. It is slow to reach maturity but long-lived, and no disease or insect pest is known to trouble it. 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.

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