Ilex cassine (Dahoon Holly)

Botanical name: Ilex cassine

Common names: Dahoon Holly, Dahoon

Origin: Florida

Florida native Holly is a wetland shrub or small tree found throughout Florida, southeastern U.S. coastal plain, Bahamas, and Cuba. In warm winter areas Ilex cassine is evergreen but tends to shed its foliage in colder climates.

In the winter, female trees are covered with bright red or yellow berries.

Ilex x attenuata is the result of a cross between Ilex cassine and Ilex opaca. It is a naturally occurring hybrid found in the southeastern United States where the ranges of the parents overlap, but hybrid cultivars have also been created. The best known cultivars are 'Fosteri', Foster holly, which does not require males to set fruit, and 'Savannah', with very showy red fruit.