Ilex spinigera (female) Open House breaking from purplish buds along

breaking from purplish buds along bare grey wood in late winter

Older books file the plant under Beloperone guttata

and botanists have since shuffled the plant toward a new genus

where the spring flowers and clean leaves lend balance

the Bahamas

Ilex spinigera (female) Open House breaking from purplish buds alongIlex spinigera is a holly with a deep past, a rare evergreen from the Hyrcanian forests that ring the southern Caspian Sea in northern Iran. Small, glossy, dark green leaves edged with fine spines clothe a dense small tree or large shrub, and on female plants such as this one bright red berries glow against the foliage through fall and into winter, the classic holly effect on an uncommonly ancient plant. Those Hyrcanian woods are living museums. When