FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Thick rounded leaves with scattered short spines easily felt. All hollies have small black stipules at leaf bases.
Description: Upright evergreen shrub, to 5 m tall.
Leaves: Alternate, leathery, elliptic or obovate leaves with scattered short spines along leaf margin, usually more on the upper half of the leaf. Leaves 4 to 9 cm long and 1.5 to 4 cm wide.
Flowers/Fruit: Fruit maturing from red to shiny black, somewhat flattened, globular drupe which drops off when mature. Blooms April/May; fruits ripen September/October.
Habit and Range: Acidic Coastal Plain wetlands such as pocosins, bay forests, pine wetlands, and stream banks. Often forms large colonies.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
Ilex coriacea (large gallberry) is similar to Ilex glabra (inkberry), but generally a taller plant and with wider leaves, where short spines are more easily felt along leaf edges than in I. glabra. Fruits of I. coriacea are larger than those of Ilex glabra and somewhat flattened, rather than globular.
Click here to view Ilex glabra.
Link to side-by-side comparisons page
