Photo of leafy branches bearing small, vivid, red berries. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

Helping animals find fruits: Plants advertise to bird dispersers via colorful fruit. Red fruits stand out in the visible spectrum, like these Ilex vomitoria fruits, but they may also contrast with the foliage in the UV spectrum, which birds can also see. #dispersal #Aquifoliaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of a single leaf with marginal spines. The lamina is damaged by two large leaf mines on one side of the midvein. A smaller mine is located at the base of one side of the midvein.

In the SE USA, species of Ilex are parasitized by leafminer flies (Phytomyza spp.; #Agromyzidae). Each species of holly seems to have its own species of leafminer #fly. This is a leaf of I. opaca with P. cf. opacae. #Aquifoliaceae #Ilex #holly #Diptera #botany 🌾🧪🌱 #flysky

Close-up photo of a bee with a black and white striped abdomen foraging on white, staminate flowers of a holly. The small, rounded, slightly serrated leaves are similar to those of Ilex coriacea.

Colletes banksia (#Colletidae) is a holly specialist. It’s a poorly known, ground-nesting bee of eastern N. America. Here it is TCOB on an Ilex sp., perhaps I. coriacea. 📷: Max McCarthy CCBYNC4 #Aquifoliaceae #bee #Ilex #holly #botany 🌾🧪 #beesky

Photo of densely leafy branches. The leaf margins are smooth.

Ilex paraguayensis is yerba mate (or mate), which is used to make a caffeinated brew. It is popular in parts of S. America and is now marketed internationally. #Aquifoliaceae #Ilex #holly #botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of a leafy branch bearing red fruits. The leaves are small and serrate. The fruits have flat, dark, terminal stigmatic scars.

Ilex vomitoria gets its epithet from an indigenous ritual of brewing tea from the leaves & drinking it in quantities that lead to 🤮. The leaves contain caffeine & have been used as a substitute for tea or coffee. Fruits are important food for birds. #Aquifoliaceae #Ilex #holly #botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafy branch with ovate, unarmed leaves and a single red fruit.

Molec evidence suggests Ilex arose in subtropical Asia & → to S Amer (30 MY), N Amer (23 MY), Australia (8 MY), Europe (6MY), & Africa (4MY). S & N Amer were colonized several times. #Ilex reached oceanic islands, like Hawaii (10MY). 📷: I. canariensis, Canary Is. #Aquifoliaceae #holly #botany 🌾🧪

Photo of a shrub in the wild. The plant has ovate, unarmed leaves borne at the tips of the branches. Many clusters of yellow fruits are borne below the leaves.

The fruits of #Ilex are fleshy with several stones (pyrenes) & are eaten by birds, which disperse the seeds. Most are red, some are black and a few are brown or green. Yellow mutants of red-fruited spp. are often cultivated. 📷: A wild, yellow I. cassine. #Aquifoliaceae #holly #botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a hand holding a branch with leaves and small white fruits. The leaves are small, with just a few marginal serrations. Tiny black stipules are visible. The flowers have superior ovaries with broad, dark stigmas. In the background are dark purple fruits.

Ilex has alternate, entire, serrate or spinose leaves & tiny, dark stipules. Flowers are usually unisexual, calyx valvate & corolla imbricate, ovary superior, style absent, stigma broad. Fruits are pyrenes, i.e. drupes with many stones. 📷: Ilex glabra #Aquifoliaceae #Ilex #holly #botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a branch of Ilex opaca with leaves and fruit covered with snow.

The family #Aquifoliaceae is one of a few families based on genera no longer recognized. It’s based on Aquifolium, a synonym of Ilex (#holly). The family has just 1 genus, #Ilex, which has ca. 564 spp. worldwide. Among temperate spp, some are deciduous, others are evergreen. #botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of clusters of red Ilex fruits on the plant. Snow has accumulated on the tops of the stems, leaves and fruits.

A pyrene is like a berry (fleshy, many-seeded), but a bony endocarp surrounds each seed, i.e. each seed is enclosed in a stone (also called a pyrene). The textbook example is the fruit of Ilex sp., but I don’t have any photos of the stones. 🤷‍♂️ #fruit #pyrene #Aquifoliaceae #Botany #PlantScience 🌾🧪