With a stunning season for the New South Wales Christmas Bush (Ceratopetalum gummiferum), it's hard to look anywhere else for local festive plant cheer. The Christmas Bush is widely grown and extremely visible in gardens around the region when it's colouring up. But there are other options!
I previously featured the amazing Illawarra Plum Pine (Podocarpus elatus), which is one of the local conifer species. And for those interested in shrubs and smaller plants, another local species of interest is the Native Holly (Alchornea ilicifolia).
This is a tall shrub or small bushy tree whose prickly leaves are quite similar to those of the English Holly (Ilex aquifolium). Its fruit are a similar shape to English Holly fruit, but for better or worse are a plain green colour, turning brown as they ripen. The lack of red fruit is somewhat made up for by the vivid colours of the new foliage, which can be pinkish or purplish red.
Native Holly isn't a common species locally. It occurs naturally in areas of Illawarra subtropical rainforest, an ecological community that is critically endangered in this region and only present on the coastal plain in small, isolated patches.
It is available at local nurseries, including the Wollongong Botanic Garden GreenPlan nursery, and makes a fantastic habitat shrub or small tree, which can either be kept neatly pruned or allowed to take on a more natural shape.
A few different Australian plant species have the common name Native Holly, including the widely cultivated Graptophyllum ilicifolium from the Mackay region in Queensland, and a pretty but very prickly pea plant called Podolobium ilicifolium. Starting to see a pattern in the Latin there? Yep, 'ilicifolium' means holly-leaved in botanical Latin. Prickly leaves are usually good protection for small birds and other critters, and they also harbour little hunters like Lynx (Oxyopidae) and Crab (Thomasidae) Spiders.
While it shares a common name with several plants, its leaves are closer to the Hollies of the northern hemisphere.
