Tree located in eastern North Carolina
They look good but unsure.
by No-Lettuce-2483
Tree located in eastern North Carolina
They look good but unsure.
by No-Lettuce-2483
5 Comments
[Yaupon Holly](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_ilvo.pdf) – Ilex vomitoria
The fruit are not edible.
It’s the only plant native to North America that produces caffeine. In Georgia I was taught that the leaves were used by local tribes to make a tea that was consumed ceremonially in large quantities and then vomited up, hence the name.
Looks like a weeping yaupon holly. I can’t speak to the berries but the leaves can be made into a tea. The tea is supposed to have a compound with caffeine like properties
Probably a yaupon cultivar, so not edible
I’ll never understand why people have this weird desire to eat random berries. 98% of the time they are either going to taste terrible or be poisonous.
In any case, it is yaupon holly and the berries taste terrible and are somewhat toxic. You can, however, make a tea out of the leaves. I tried yaupon holly tea once and found it disappointing. There is a reason you rarely see it sold in stores.
Yaupon Holly – do NOT eat the berries. They won’t kill you but they’ll make you sick – Ingesting them can cause mild to moderate digestive issues, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps. The leaves can be used to make tea.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria)