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Summary
Duration	Perennial
Growth Habit	Shrub
U.S. Nativity	Native to U.S.
Federal T/E Status
National Wetland Indicator	FACW-, FACW
Morphology/Physiology
Active Growth Period	Summer and Fall
After Harvest Regrowth Rate
Bloat
C:N Ratio	High
Coppice Potential	No
Fall Conspicuous	No
Fire Resistant	Yes
Flower Color	White
Flower Conspicuous	No
Foliage Color	Green
Foliage Porosity Summer	Moderate
Foliage Porosity Winter	Porous
Foliage Texture	Coarse
Fruit/Seed Color	Black
Fruit/Seed Conspicuous	Yes
Growth Form	Multiple Stem
Growth Rate	Slow
Height at 20 Years, Maximum (feet)	5
Height, Mature (feet)	8
Known Allelopath	No
Leaf Retention	Yes
Lifespan	Long
Low Growing Grass	No
Nitrogen Fixation
Resprout Ability	No
Shape and Orientation	Erect
Toxicity	None
Growth Requirements
Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Fine Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Medium Textured Soils	Yes
Anaerobic Tolerance	High
CaCO3 Tolerance	Medium
Cold Stratification Required	Yes
Drought Tolerance	Low
Fertility Requirement	Medium
Fire Tolerance	Low
Frost Free Days, Minimum	165
Hedge Tolerance	Medium
Moisture Use	High
pH, Minimum	4.5
pH, Maximum	7
Planting Density per Acre, Minimum	1200
Planting Density per Acre, Maximum	2700
Precipitation, Minimum	32
Precipitation, Maximum	60
Root Depth, Minimum (inches)	16
Salinity Tolerance	Medium
Shade Tolerance	Intolerant
Temperature, Minimum (°F)	-13
Reproduction
Bloom Period	Spring
Commercial Availability	Routinely Available
Fruit/Seed Abundance	Medium
Fruit/Seed Period Begin	Summer
Fruit/Seed Period End	Fall
Fruit/Seed Persistence	Yes
Propagated by Bare Root	Yes
Propagated by Bulb	No
Propagated by Container	Yes
Propagated by Corm	No
Propagated by Cuttings	No
Propagated by Seed	Yes
Propagated by Sod	No
Propagated by Sprigs	No
Propagated by Tubers	No
Seed per Pound	29000
Seed Spread Rate	Slow
Seedling Vigor	Low
Small Grain	No
Vegetative Spread Rate	None
Suitability/Use
Berry/Nut/Seed Product	No
Christmas Tree Product	No
Fodder Product	No
Fuelwood Product	None
Lumber Product	No
Naval Store Product	No
Nursery Stock Product	Yes
Palatable Browse Animal	Low
Palatable Graze Animal	Low
Palatable Human	No
Post Product	No
Protein Potential	Low
Pulpwood Product	No
Veneer Product	No

 

Kingdom  Plantae -- Plants

Subkingdom  Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants

Superdivision  Spermatophyta -- Seed plants

Division  Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants

Class  Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons

Subclass  Rosidae

Order  Celastrales

Family  Aquifoliaceae -- Holly family

Genus  Ilex L. -- holly P

Species  Ilex glabra (L.) Gray -- inkberry P

 

Alternate common names

Gallberry, bitter gallberry, winterberry, Canadian winterberry, evergreen winterberry, Appalachian tea

 

Uses

Inkberry leaves are browsed by marsh rabbit and white tailed-deer, the fruits are important food for raccoon, coyote, and opossum when other sources are scarce.  The fruit is also eaten by at least 15 species of birds, including bobwhite quail and wild turkey.  Inkberry provides cover for white-tailed deer, small rodents, and several species of birds.  Nectar of the flowers is an important source for honey production. 

 

Inkberry is coming to be recommended and used for ornament as one of the few evergreen shrubs that

 

thrives in continually moist to wet sites and adapts to a wide range of light availability.  It provides a larger and faster growing alternative to boxwood hybrids, although it tends to be leggier, prone to stem breakage, and the rhizomatous plants tend to form large, expanding colonies.  Numerous cultivars of inkberry have been selected and are commercially available.  Compared to the wild types, these generally have a more compact, taller, and/or broader habit, smaller and darker leaves, greater cold hardiness, and/or more abundant fruit production.  Selections are sometimes restricted to one or the other sex, and because the staminate and pistillate flowers are on different plants, both sexes must be present for fruit production.  

 

Inkberry can be used for erosion control, watershed protection, and phosphate mine reclamation.  It is included in listings of potential new crops for Australia as a source of beverage -- presumably desirable for its caffeine.

 

The fruit and leaves of various species of holly, presumably including inkberry, contain a mixture of the caffeine-like alkaloid theobromine, caffeine itself, and glycosides.  The Indians of the southeastern US made a caffeinated tea from the leaves of yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria).  Mate, or Paraguay tea, is made from the leaves of Ilex paraguariensis, a holly tree indigenous to Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.  Mate contains caffeine and a natural alkaloid called mateine, a mildly stimulating relative of caffeine that tends not to produce side effects such as nervousness or sleeplessness. 

 

Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values.

 

Description

General: Holly family (Aquifoliaceae).  Native, open evergreen shrubs, commonly growing 1.5-2(-3) meters tall, with numerous sprouts from thick, heavy, tuberous rhizomes, forming clusters and extensive, dense, colonial thickets.  Leaves are alternate, simple, entire or finely toothed toward the tip, obovate to oblong or elliptic, 2.5-6.5 cm long, evergreen, leathery, shiny and dark green above, lighter and dull beneath.  Flowers are either staminate (male) or pistillate (female), borne on separate plants (the species dioecious); individual flowers small, greenish-white and inconspicuous, the staminate 3-7 in short-stalked clusters, the pistillate solitary in leaf axils.  Fruit is 5-7 mm in diameter, nearly black, shiny; seeds (pyrenes) 5-7, smooth.  The common name is in reference to the dark blue-black fruits. 

 

Distribution

Inkberry occurs on the coastal plain of all US states along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from Texas to Florida and northward to southern New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware, including more inland localities in Pennsylvania and Arkansas.  It continues northward sporadically and uncommonly through New England into Nova Scotia, Canada.    

 

Establishment

Adaptation: Inkberry occurs primarily in pocosins, savannas, low woods, and pine barrens and woodlands.  It is a common understory species of several fire-climax communities and an invader of frequently burned areas.  On well-drained sites of bayland and pocosin communities, it is a dominant species.  It is a common shrub in loblolly-shortleaf pine communities, and with Wiregrass (Aristida stricta), it may be one of the most conspicuous members of the understory of longleaf pine forests in Florida.  Inkberry is shade tolerant and grows in both sunny and shaded habitats, on dry to wet sites, and on sandy to heavier peaty soils.  Flowering: March-June; fruiting: September-October, the fruits persisting into the following spring.

 

General: Wildlife use of inkberry and the colonization of a variety of habitats suggest that the seeds are animal dispersed.  Germination may not occur for 2-3 years, and seedling growth and early development are slow.  Seedlings apparently grow best in partial shade.  

 

Management

Fire top-kills inkberry but the species is adapted to a regime of recurrent fires.  Typically, the entire aerial portion of the stem dies, although light fires may only kill the most recent growth.  Re-growth occurs by resprouting from root crowns and rhizomes, most vigorously in the first post-fire year.

 

Control: Successive annual fires will effectively kill inkberry, when management for cattle and commercial tree production call for complete control.  Summer fires are most damaging but frequent winter fires also are effective for control.  

 

Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for more information.  Look in the phone book under ”United States Government.”  The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading “Department of Agriculture.”  These plant materials are somewhat available from commercial sources.

 

References

Brizicky, G.K. 1964.  The genera of Celastrales in the southeastern United States.  J. Arnold Arb. 45:206-234.  

 

Coladonato, M. 1991.  Ilex glabra. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler).  The fire effects information system [Data base]. U.S. Dept. of Agric., Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, Montana.  <https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/>

 

Dirr, M.A. 1986.  Ilex glabra.  American Nurseryman 164 (10):134 (with illust.).

 

Dirr M.A. & J.H. Alexander 1991.  Ilex glabra, the inkberry holly.  Arnoldia (Jamaica Plain) 51:16-22. 

 

Florida Water Resource Management 1999.  Florida’s hollies.  Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection, Internet site: <https://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/slerp/wetlands/Ilex.htm>

 

Perry, F.B. 1983.  Propagation of Ilex glabra and Rhododendron nudiflorum from softwood cuttings.  Research report series - Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.

 

Woods, F.W. 1956.  Ilex glabra forma leucocarpa: A white-fruited holly.  Rhodora 58:25-26.

 

Prepared By

Guy Nesom

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

 

Species Coordinator

Gerald Guala

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Edited 05dec00 jsp;03feb03ahv; 060801 jsp

 

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS Web site<https://plants.usda.gov> or the Plant Materials Program Web site <https://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov>

 

 

 

Attribution:  U.S. Department of Agriculture