The Holly bears the Crown: the seasonal significance of Holly 2/2

 The Holly bears the Crown: the seasonal significance of Holly 2/2

Part 2 of 2: Ecology

In the first part of this seasonal study, we established that Holly and Ivy are symbolic plants associated with the Winter Solstice, Yuletide and Christmas traditions. Ivy was used to symbolise femininity; Holly, masculinity. The name Holly is suggested by some to be a corruption of the word 'holy'. 

In folklore, Holly was apparently allowed to grow tall above the hedgeline in order to impede witches as they flew above them. For centuries at Christmas, garlands of holly and ivy have been collected to decorate the outside and inside of peoples' homes, often with ivy outside and holly within (Deck the Halls), but it was considered unlucky to do so before Christmas Eve, perhaps because cutting the boughs would allow witches to move more freely. Records describing the seasonal cutting of holly boughs date as far back as the 15th Century in the reign of Henry VI.

Holly was historically a source of winter livestock fodder at a time when greenery was otherwise limited or absent. It is for this reason that holly was grown for pollarding*  and these are reflected in British place names and peoples' names, such as Hollywood, Holt, Holm and, most importantly, Hollins. There are often no holly trees remaining at these places, but stands remain around the New Forest, Dorset, and perhaps most impressively at Staverton Thicks in Suffolk and the Stiperstones in Shropshire. 

I am not aware of many examples locally within the Greenhavens area, but there is an impressive Veteran Holly in the churchyard at Barcombe** and there is a area of dense Holly growth with the occasional mature tree at the rear of the old Union Workhouse at Newhaven, now part of the Meeching Down Local Nature Reserve in Newhaven. Is there any historical relation between the trees and the former workhouse? The land was part of the Union Workhouse from around 1835 and this is why locals still call Meeching Down 'The Union Field'.

Holly growing at The Union (Meeching Down Local Nature Reserve, Newhaven)

Holly is an impressive member of Britain's native flora. It was one of the earliest trees to colonise the land after the last ice age when a land bridge still existed with continental Europe. It grows in a range of soil types at at a range of altitudes. It is susceptible to extremes of temperature and moisture (i.e. drought and waterlogging), but it is otherwise tolerant of exposure to wind, salt, shade, browsing by animals, air pollution and pollarding. 

Holly berries are toxic to humans, but a few can be taken as a purgative. Birds such as Mistle Thrushes Turdus viscivorus (a folk-name is 'hollin cock') and Robins Erithacus rubecula are so fond of them that they will defend individual bushes as a food resource during cold seasons. For a species which colonised Britain so early, its tough adaptations are so successful at deterring invertebrate larvae that only a few species are associated with it, the most conspicuous being the leaf-mining fly Phytomyza ilicis, which causes a distinctive yellow and red blotch-mine on its tough leaves. The caterpillar of the Holly Blue butterfly Celastrina argiolus feeds on the developing berries on female trees. This butterfly has two broods each year and the second brood eggs are laid on ivy, where the caterpillars feed on the flowers. The Holly Tortrix moth Rhopobota neavana also feeds as a caterpillar on silk-spun leaves and flowers of Holly and other fruit trees.

Phytomyza ilicis larval fly mine on a holly leaf

Phytomyza ilicis larval fly mine on a holly leaf

One fascinating characteristic about Holly is that its leaves above the browseline are less spiny or spine-free. Growing spines on its leaves involves additional energy input, so it is possible that it evolved either to lose its spines above the level reached by deer or it evolved to grow spines below a certain level in response to browsing by deer. The bitter bark can be boiled to produce a sticky substance called birdlime, which was used historically to capture small birds, a link back to the Christmas carols.

And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the Holly (the Sans Day Carol). 

Happy Christmas everyone and may the yuletide log burn bright and warm in your hearths!

Less spiny leaves above the browse line

References:

* Pollarding is a form of tree management similar to coppicing in which growth is cut back periodically above the height of browsing animals such as deer. Trees are pollarded to provide winter fodder for livestock or wood products for basket-making and other traditional crafts.

** Ancient Tree Inventory link to the Barcombe Holly: https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree-search/tree?treeid=185451&from=3523&v=1803279&ml=map&z=12&sp=24&nwLat=50.974961427664155&nwLng=-0.3158438474546976&seLat=50.82165609248365&seLng=0.3433358400453024#/