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Ruscus aculeatus
Also called Box Holly
Butcher's broom is a low, evergreen, dioecious shrub from Eurasia whose flattened stems (cladodes) look like spiny leaves. It is grown mainly for its shade tolerance and winter-spring berries, and is best given deep shade and well-drained soil.
Ruscus aculeatus, known as butcher's-broom, is a low evergreen dioecious Eurasian shrub, with flat shoots known as cladodes that give the appearance of stiff, spine-tipped leaves. Small greenish flowers appear in spring, and are borne singly in the centre of the cladodes. The female flowers are followed by a red berry, and the seeds are bird-distributed, but the plant also spreads vegetatively by means of rhizomes. It is native to Eurasia and some northern parts of Africa.
Ruscus aculeatus occurs in woodlands and hedgerows, where it is tolerant of deep shade, and also on coastal cliffs. Likely due to its attractive winter/spring color, Ruscus aculeatus has become a fairly common landscape plant.
In Great Britain it has been recorded from southern England to north Wales. In north-eastern Ireland it is extremely rare growing wild but has been recorded in Counties Down and Antrim.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ruscus aculeatus 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.
