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Ilex cassine
Also called Dahoon Holly, Cassena Holly, Cassine
Dahoon holly is a large evergreen shrub or small tree native to the southeastern US, Gulf Coast and Caribbean, grown for its glossy leaves and red berries. It likes moist soil and sun to part shade, and needs both a male and a female plant for berries.
Ilex cassine is a holly native to the southeastern coast of North America that grows from Virginia south down the East Coast to Florida, then west along the Gulf Coast to the Colorado River in Texas, with subspecies growing southward on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico as far as Veracruz, Mexico, and in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. It is commonly known as dahoon holly or cassena, the latter derived from the Timucua name for I. vomitoria.
It is a large shrub or small tree growing to 12 meters (39 ft). The leaves are evergreen, 6–15 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, glossy dark green, entire or with a few small spines near the apex of the leaf. The flowers are white, with a four-lobed corolla. The fruit is a red drupe, 5–6 mm in diameter, containing four seeds.
Ilex cassine is indigenous to the southeastern coast of North America and the Caribbean, growing along the margins of waterways and swamps from Virginia southward down the Atlantic coastline to Florida and west along the Gulf coast to the Colorado River in Texas, with subspecies growing southward as far as Veracruz on the Gulf Coast, and in the Caribbean on the coasts of Cuba, the Bahamas, and Puerto Rico.
It is cultivated in warmer climates as an ornamental plant for the attractive bright red berries set against the glossy green leaves. It is known to grow as high as 12 meters (39 ft).
English holly · Ilex chapaensis · Ilex chinensis · Large gallberry · Japanese holly · Marsh Holly · Possumhaw · Inkberry · Guayusa · Elegance female holly · Ilex kaushue · Tarajo Holly
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ilex cassine by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
