© The Dabney Nursery
Plant: Lusterleaf - Holly
Holly · Ilex latifolia
Size: 15 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
Lusterleaf holly is a coarse textured broadleaf evergreen from Japan and southern China that grows 20 to 25 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide with a dense, multi-stemmed, pyramidal to rounded form. The lustrous dark green leathery leaves are 4 to 8 inches long, and small fragrant yellowish-green spring flowers give way to dense clusters of dull orange-red drupes that hold from fall into winter. It takes full sun to partial shade in acid to neutral soil with good drainage, resists deer and drought, and works as a specimen, a screen or a bold accent.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 25 ft tall and 25 ft wide
- Blooms in spring
- Hardy in USDA zones 6-9
- Evergreen foliage
Plant description
Lusterleaf holly is a coarse textured broadleaf evergreen from Japan and southern China that grows 20 to 25 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide with a dense, multi-stemmed, pyramidal to rounded form. The lustrous dark green leathery leaves are 4 to 8 inches long, and small fragrant yellowish-green spring flowers give way to dense clusters of dull orange-red drupes that hold from fall into winter. It takes full sun to partial shade in acid to neutral soil with good drainage, resists deer and drought, and works as a specimen, a screen or a bold accent.
- Flowers
- Small dull yellowish-green fragrant flowers about a quarter inch across with four petals, borne in cymes in spring.
- Foliage
- Alternate, simple, leathery leaves 4 to 8 inches long, lustrous dark green above and yellowish-green beneath, with serrate margins bearing black glands.
- Fruit
- Deep dull orange-red drupes less than half an inch across held in dense clusters from fall into winter.
- Bark & stems
- Mottled light or dark gray smooth bark; current growth green, turning gray-green to gray-brown and densely pubescent when young.
- Native range
- Central and Southern Japan, and Southern China
