Photo: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Possumhaw

Ilex decidua

Also called possumhaw holly, deciduous holly, swamp holly, meadow holly.

A deciduous holly whose orange-red berries line the bare gray branches from September to March, feeding birds late in winter.

Wildlife valueTolerates wet soilDrought tolerantWinter interest

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 7–15 ft
USDA zones: 5–9
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, rocky ground, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 18 states and the District of Columbia, north to Illinois, south to Florida and west to Texas
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Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia
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Possumhaw is a deciduous holly, usually a shrub with a spreading crown and sometimes a small tree. It differs from the winterberry holly we grow in its narrow, blunt leaves, often crowded on short spurs, and in its ribbed seeds. Unlike winterberry, it takes alkaline soil. Opossums eat the fruit, as the name suggests. Plant a group at the edge of a pond or in a low, wet corner, where the berries show against the bare branches all winter.

Size, growth and what to expect

Possumhaw grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It grows 7 to 15 feet tall and 5 to 12 feet wide in gardens, and up to 30 feet in the wild. Its roots send up suckers that form small colonies. Seedlings flower at 2 to 4 years, and only then can male and female plants be told apart.

Small white flowers open from March into May. On female plants, berries a quarter inch across ripen orange-red in September and hang on the bare branches until mid-March. Birds and mammals eat them late in winter, after freezes and thaws. It is a host plant of the Henry's elfin butterfly.

It grows wild from Maryland and Virginia to Florida and west to Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. It reaches north to southern Illinois and Indiana. Its home is low, wet woods, stream banks and swamps, and also dolomite glades and rocky upland woods.

How to grow Possumhaw

Possumhaw takes full sun or part shade. It grows in clay, loam or sand. It stands wet ground and short floods, and it takes drought. Plant it 6 feet from a wall and set plants 6 feet apart. Keep it 15 feet from overhead wires, since southern plants can pass 20 feet.

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 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. For a spring sowing, keep it in a damp bag at room temperature for one to two months and then in the refrigerator for two to three months.

Water weekly through the first summer, and in long dry spells after that. Deer browse the twigs, so cage young plants where deer are many. It needs little pruning. Shape it in early spring, just before new growth begins.

Most plants are male or female, and only females bear the red fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Leaf spots and powdery mildew turn up now and then, but nothing serious troubles 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.

Sources (14)