Schillings Yaupon Holly. This most compact of the yaupon hollies is the staple of the southern landscape. Dense, fine, twiggy growth makes up a plant that may reach 3' high by 4' across at maturity. Tough as nails and tolerant of salt. A male cultivar, which because of its heavy flowering characteristics makes this a great pollinator for female clones. It is so common in southern landscapes that one rarely has to worry about having to plant it. Shade to sun in almost any soil. The leaves of Yaupon Hollies have one of the highest caffeine contents of any known plant, and after the Boston tea party when the British cut off the colonists source of tea during and after the Revolution, many Americans got their caffeine "fixes" from tea made from the leaves of this plant. The Indians referred to it as the "black drink" and it was used by them as a ceremonial drink, where if one imbibed a large enough quantity of it, they would "regurgitate," hence the Latin specific epithet "vomitoria." (Photos courtesy of Clemson University)
Zones 7-9
