Prickly Parties & Accidental Adoption - Holly
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Rooted, where this week we’re back to covering some of your seasonal planty favorites!
Before we jump in, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for your continued support- both here on the podcast and with our new stuff on social media. Building a community has been so rewarding and special, and it was also scary for me when I first started- so I wanted to really take the time to say thank you for being here- whether you’re brand new here or you’ve been around since I was recording episodes under a heap of blankets!
Moving back into what you REALLY came for- today we’re digging into a holiday staple across the world- Holly! Known for its bright red berries and super pointy leaves, I’m willing to bet these beauties are alllll over your local landscapes, centerpieces, grocery stores, and nurseries!
Botanically known as Illex, this genus is a part of the Aquifoliaceae family, with famous members like Yapoun Holly, European Holly (the one you probably picture,) and winterberry.
Today we’re going to be focusing on European Holly, or Ilex aquifolium, but I am sure we’ll talk about some other relatives soon enough!
These guys are actually pretty wide spread thanks to their ability to adapt AND being such a tasty snack for animals that tend to migrate., They are fairly slow growing, but can eventually reach up to 50 ft (10 meters) though most of the ones you find for landscaping have been bred to stay around 5-ish feet like any good hedge shrub
They are evergreen with glossy but spiny alternating leaves- usually with 3-5 spikes on each half the leaf (so 6 to 10 total). They are dicots, meaning they have both male and female plants, with only females having those iconic red berries, which tend to ripen in the winter, and are technically drupes because they contain a few small seeds inside! Before berries, the flowers of Holly are honestly kind of sneaky, since they are just a light green color and aren’t very big! But man do they have a neville longbottom moment for winter.
Now as tempting as those berries may look, this is the part where I break your heart and remind you that- for the most part- tiny red berries are nature’s red flags for human bellies- and these guys are no exception. Not only are they not particularly tasty, but they are also fairly toxic, leading to nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea if ingested in smaller amounts, and fever and other worse complications if you really go for it,,, so yeah- no snacking on the holly center pisces, okay.
What they lack in feasibility they MORE than make up for in fable though!
For starters, let's take it back to my favorite cultural touchstone- Nordic Gods…. Hold on tight, because much viking boat builder- filunger for my fellow nerds out there- we’re about to get riveting
In nordic tradition, Holly is infamously known as the plant of Thor, partially because Holly is a weirdly good conductor of electricity, and also because much like Thor, Holly is regarded as a sort of protector- trapping evil and other big bad with its spines and twists.
Famously in celtic folklore there is also the tale of the oak king and the holy king. According to legend, these two fight for dominance over the course of the year, with power flip-flopping at the summer and winter solstice. The holy king is described as wearing red, with holly in his scraggly beard, and appearing to hold a holly club while directing a sleigh of 8 stags.. Santa?
In another tradition from that region, It was said that Holly’s role in the wild was to provide shelter for the smaller things of the forest, with sprites, fairies, and other fae finding comfort in its branches. So, if you were to take a sprig of holly home with you, you’d also bring those friends with you- and while at first it might seem like kind of a bad thing to bring those tricksters in, it turns out this is more of a “if you’re cold, they’re cold situation” so bringing them inside left them in a VERY generous mood and they would help ward off like seasonal depression and other doomy gloomy nasties.
Meanwhile in ancient Rome they were celebrating the season…..a little differently? Mostly with human sacrifice and white elephant gifts in honor of Saturn. Known as “Saturnalia” and celebrated approximately between the 17th through 23rd of December, this was a festival of role reversals and light debauchery. This was all done as a way of honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture, who was believed to have the power to bring back the so called “golden age” a time when humans lived in harmony with the gods and earth, eliminating the need for there to be power struggles, or honestly even work for that matter. During this celebration, gambling was legal, enslaved people and those who owned slaves were seen as (mostly equal) and as a general rule folx were encouraged to embrace living like they were in utopia for a few days. They even appointed a temporary king known as the lord of misrule to oversee the festivities. There were feasts, an ongoing exchange of silly little wax trinkets, a kind of messed up human sacrifice to saturn (kind of giving desperate to be honest) and a TON of winter decoration like holly to kind of harken back to the whole abundance theme.
Christianity, not waiting to ruin the magic of not christmas that their new followers had grown accustomed to, adopted holly by taking it to an absolutely fucking metal place- with the leaves being jesus’s crown of thorns, and the berries symbolizing drops of his blood. Well played.
This is the part of the show where I once again put out that someone REALLY needs to make “blood of adonis” happen- I AM BEGGING for a botanical sleep token over here.
Outside of symbolism and celebration, Holly also had practical applications in everyday life. The leaves were often used to feed livestock through winter when other forage would have been hard to find for them, plus sprigs were used to make leaves and other hanging decor to keep demons away - however, it’s important to note that no one ever cut down full holly plants, but instead only took sprigs. And this is because it was seen as really bad luck to cut the whole plant down.
Even so-called “unholy witches” flew around them out of respect- and that says a lot seeing as christians thought witches were eating babies and rubbing henbane on their bits.
And speaking of pagan practices, in many traditions Holly is used in spellwork for protection, vitality, and to symbolize abundance in the darkness of winter..sometimes as a symbol of the divine masculine depending on tradition and personal preference.
Holly was also used to Attract love- the idea being that if you put a leaf under your pillow you’d see your future partner in a dream
Holly was also rumored to to protect against bad intentions, poison, and even repel lighting from striking your home if you planted it near the front entrance of your home, which I have mixed feelings about because I was taught you shouldn’t put prickly stuff near doors or walkways because people are clumsy….but then again, a scape sounds way better than being struck by lighting, so maybe that’s a risk you’re willing to take? Personally I take the practical magic approach where I can, and so far I’m thrilled to report that none of my clients have been struck by lightning or poisoned to my knowledge…so there.
Funnily enough though, there might be some truth on that lighting bit- the idea here is that holly can help to protect other PLANTS from lighting because its pointy leaf shape is better at redirecting lighting- kind of like zuko defending katara in Avatar the last air bender, but plantier.
Today holly is mostly used as a landscape plant to add a seasonal pop of color and food source for birds. While European holly is the most popular for decor, If you want holly in your landscape, I would encourage you to use your native holly! Most of us have a few options no matter WHERE we live, and your native plants are going to not only less work for you, but provide key nutrients and shelter for YOUR native ecosystem- supporting biodiversity without even really compromising on looks!
Next time you see Holly- on your table or a walk- I hope you’ll say hello, and thank it for bringing us another reason for silly little trinkets. That’s all I’ve got for this week, but I’ll be back next week to cover another seasonal favorite- Mistletoe! It should be a wild ride- see you then!
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