Ilex verticillata - Winterberry

Sizes available: #1 (Trade gallon), recently up-potted, unsexed, dioecious, perhaps fall, 2026

Basics: zones 3-9, 6-12' x 6-12', full sun to part shade and quite shade tolerant, but berries best in more light. The subtle greenish blooms appear in the leaf axils in late spring to early summer. Female plants develop red berries in the fall. Needs to have a simultaneously flowering male within 50 feet for fruit set. Likes moist acidic soils, wet and boggy are okay, but also drought tolerant once established. 

Common names: Winterberry, Common Winterberry, Michigan Holly, Northern Holly, Swamp Holly, Black Alder (see third image)

Family: Aquifoliaceae

Origin/Distribution: Found in Nova Scotia south to the Florida Panhandle, over into east Texas, north to southeast Missouri, and west to Minnesota. Native to Maine.

Habitat: Low, moist and lightly shaded woodland, wet edges of various waterbodies, swamps, bogs, and ditches. 

More: Winterberry offers nesting sites, safe cover, and food for various bird species. I have observed a flock of bluejays strip a bush of its berries in a matter of minutes. Pollinators enjoy the nectar of both the male and female plants and swap pollen from one to the other thereby fertilizing the female flowers that go on to produce berries. This plant is a larval host for the Harris' Three-spot, Harrisimemna trisignata, and the Pawpaw Sphinx moth, Dolba hyloeus, which also feeds on Sweetfern, Comptonia peregrina.

Source: These bare root plants were seed grown at Cold Stream Farm in Michigan.

Image credits: All images Wikimedia Commons. The first botanical illustration is by Matilda Smith and is from Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol. 146. The second botanical illustration is from A Guide to the Trees by Alice Lounsberry. The illustrator is not attributed but this sure looks like the inimitable style of Mrs. Ellis Rowan.