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Ilex aquifolium
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Aquifoliales
Family:	Aquifoliaceae
Genus:	Ilex
Species:	I. aquifolium
Binomial name
Ilex aquifolium L.

Ilex aquifolium (Holly, or European Holly to distinguish it from related species) is a species of holly native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia.^[1][2][3][4]

European Holly flowers; male above, female below (leaves cut to show flowers more clearly)

It is an evergreen tree growing to 10-25 m tall and 40-80 cm (rarely 1 m or more) trunk diameter, with smooth grey bark. The leaves are 5-12 cm long and 2-6 cm broad, variable in shape; on young plants and low branches, with three to five sharp spines on each side, pointing alternately upward and downward; on higher branches of older trees with few or no spines except for the leaf tip, often entire.^[3][4]

The flowers are dioecious, white, four-lobed, and pollinated by bees. The fruit is a red drupe 6-10 mm diameter, containing four pits; although mature in late autumn, they are very bitter due to the ilicin content^[5], and so are rarely touched by birds until late winter after frost has made them softer and more palatable.

Medicinal uses and constituents

Holly is rarely used medicinally due to its toxicity, but is diuretic, relieves fevers and has a laxative action.^[6].

It contains saponins, the xanthine theobromine and a yellow pigment ilexanthin.^[7]

Toxicity

An extract of European holly has led to a fatal drop in blood pressure in rats.^[8]

The ilicin helps make them poisonous to people since it irritates the stomach and intestines, and other constituents render them harmful to the nervous system and heart. Ingestion of as few as twenty berries by adults can be fatal.^[3][4]

References

From Wikispecies

Ilex aquifolium

Taxonavigation

Classification System: APG II (down to family level)

Main Page
Cladus: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiospermae
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: core eudicots
Cladus: Asterids
Cladus: Euasterids II
Ordo: Aquifoliales
Familia: Aquifoliaceae
Genus: Ilex
Subgenus: Ilex subg. Ilex
Sectio: Ilex sect. Ilex
Species: Ilex aquifolium

Name

Ilex aquifolium L.

Reference

Species Plantarum 1:125. 1753

Synonyms

• Aquifolium ilex Scop., Fl. Carniol. ed. 2 1: 116 (1771)
• Ilex aquifolium var. algarviensis Chodat, Excurs. Bot. Espagne Port. 81 (1909)
• Ilex aquifolium var. balearica (Desf.) Willk. in Willk. & Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hispan. 3: 478 (1877)
• Ilex aquifolium var. barcinonae Pau in Mem. Mus. Ci. Nat. Barcelona, Ser. Bot. 1: 32 (1922)
• Ilex aquifolium var. heterophyllum Rchb., Fl. Germ. Excurs. 433 (1830-1832)
• Ilex aquifolium var. laetevirens Sennen, Pl. Espagne n.° 4722, in sched., nom. nud.
• Ilex aquifolium var. lusitanica Chodat , in sched., nom. inval.
• Ilex aquifolium var. senencens Gaudin, Fl. Helv. 1: 462 (1828)
• Ilex balearica Desf., Hist. Arbr. France 2: 362 (1809)
• Ilex montserratense Sennen, Pl. Espagne n.° 2581, in sched., nom. nud.
• Ilex perado subsp. iberica (Loes.) S. Andrews in Kew Bull. 39(1): 152 (1984)

Excluded taxa

I. aquifolium var. altaclarensis - I. aquifolium var. chinensis

Vernacular names

For more multimedia, look at Ilex aquifolium on Wikimedia Commons.