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Holly Tree Gift
Holly tree gift
A tree with an abundance of white flowers in May
 
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The Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is a beautiful evergreen whose berries and leaves have been long used to produce attractive Christmas decorations.

Our Holly tree gift is the perfect present to celebrate Christmas or for anyone with a winter birthday. It's also a great gift for a 5th (wood) wedding anniversary. Read more ...

What's in the box?

Your tree gift will be approx. 20 - 80cm tall. It comes packaged in a jute drawstring bag, with a gift card containing your personal message and a tree planting guide to show you how to give your tree a healthy start to its life.

Add the recipient details, your personal message and choose your preferred gift card below.

PLEASE NOTE:
We can only send tree gifts to UK mainland addresses.

If you want to send a gift internationally, please consider our TREE DEDICATIONS.
Only £16.99


Product Code: HOLLY-TREE-GIFT

RECIPIENT NAME


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PERSONALISED MESSAGE


 (Max. 300 characters)
GIFT CARD



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Description

Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is a striking evergreen tree with red berries and glossy green leaves that have been long used to make Christmas decorations.

Holly is native to Britain, western and southern Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia. It is often used as hedgerow plant.


Characteristics

Holly is an evergreen tree that typically grows to 10 - 15 metres tall with a trunk of 40 - 80 cm in diameter and smooth grey bark.

The glossy green leaves are 5 - 12 cm long and 2 - 6 cm broad, with three to five sharp spines on each side, pointing alternately upward and downward. On higher branches of older trees they have few or no spines except for the leaf tip.

It has small, white flowers in spring that pollinated by bees.

The red berries are 6 - 10 mm in diameter. They mature in late autumn, but are very bitter due to their ilicin content. So they are rarely touched by birds until late winter after frost has made them softer and more palatable.

Holly berries are somewhat toxic to humans.


Uses

Holly wood is a very pale, white wood. It's heavy, hard and fine grained making it ideal for furniture or engraving. Holly wood also makes good firewood.

Holly branches are often used to decorate homes and make wreaths at Christmas.

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


Mythology and symbolism

Holly branches have long been used to decorate homes in winter - well before the first Christmas. The Romans used to give each other holly boughs during their winter festival of Saturnalia.

The tree was also thought to be a fertility symbol and charm against witches, goblins and the devil. Cutting down a holly tree was thought to be unlucky.


DISCLAMER : Any uses for trees or tree extracts. whether edible or medicinal, have not been tried or tested by EFORESTS.CO.UK so please take caution and seek proper advice before attempting any recipes or medicinal extracts from any of the trees listed on our site.


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