FAMILY: AQUIFOLIACEAE
ALTERNATE COMMON NAME: common winterberry, winterberry holly
LEAVES: simple, alternate, deciduous; shape highly variable: elliptical to ovate, apex acuminate to acute; 1 to 3 inches long, half as wide; margins sharply serrate, doubly serrate or somewhat blunt and incurved; rugose upper surface, lower surface with pubescence or at least major veins so
FLOWER: tree dioecious; flowers small, creamy white; 4 to 7 petals and sepals
FRUIT: shining red drupe with 2 to 7 seeds; persistent thru winter; 1/4” diameter, often in groups of two to four and short stalks
TWIGS: numerous short spur shoots, very thin; older stems with cream-colored, raised lenticels; buds imbricate about 1/16 of an inch
BARK: becoming smooth, gray, mottled
FORM: Often a multiple stemmed shrub, rounded form; to about 20 ft tall
HABITAT: wet sites
WETLAND DESIGNATION: Facultative Wetland (FACW): Usually occurs in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plain Region
RANGE: Minnesota to Nova Scotia thru Piedmont and Blue Ridge with outliers in eastern Mississippi and S.E. Louisiana above Lake Pontchartrain
USES: ornamental; eaten by birds and mammals
Best Recognition Features:
- rugose leaves, sharp serrations common
- bright red drupes remaining in winter
- stem with raised cream colored lenticels
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