Holly was a popular Christmas decoration in Massachusetts in the late 1800's and early 1900's when extensive stands of native wild hollies grew along the Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Over harvesting for Christmas decorations, ploughs and bulldozers had seriously reduced the holly supply and habitat by 1925 when Wilfred Wheeler established a holly plantation on Cape Cod to protect the remaining hollies. The Audobon society now manages Wheeler's hollies in the Ashumet Holly Reservation which is open to the public. You can also find spectacular holly bushes and trees in the Arnold Arboretum and two 40-50 foot specimens at the intersection of Highland Ave and Appleton Street in West Cambridge. For the tallest hollies you'll have to travel to Louisiana where warm, moist growing seasons have produced 100 foot trees.
Female hollies have berries.
Males do not. In the Spring, the bees and giant luna moths pick up pollen dust from the stamens of the male holly flowers and deposit it on the sticky pistils of the female holly flowers. Only one male is needed to adequately fertilize 30 or more female trees. All rights reserved.