Large Gallberry
Ilex coriacea
Large gallberry, or sweet gallberry, is an evergreen wetland holly of the Southeast whose flowers yield prized gallberry honey and whose black fruit feeds birds. A suckering shrub for boggy, acidic ground. The berries are poisonous to people: like others in the genus they carry saponins and can cause vomiting, diarrhea and stupor if eaten in quantity.
- Family
- Aquifoliaceae
- Type
- tree
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 12–12 ft
- Spacing
- 6–10 ft apart
- Light
- part shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- acidic, neutral
- Bloom
- March, April, May
- Bloom colors
- white
- Wildlife value
- pollinators, butterflies, mammals, songbirds, larval host
- Caterpillar hosts
- ~39 butterfly & moth species
- Landscape uses
- naturalizing, rain garden
- Native states
- AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, NJ, SC, TX, VA
Related native plants
More Ilex species
- American Holly (Ilex opaca)
- Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria)
- Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillata)
- Possumhaw (Ilex decidua)
- Inkberry (Ilex glabra)
- Dahoon Holly (Ilex cassine)