Ilex glabra
Inkberry
Light requirements: Sun / Part Shade
Height: 4' - 12'
Spread: 5' - 8'
Water use: Medium to high
Bloom time: May - Jul

This native shrub provides many ecological benefits in addition to being an excellent evergreen plant for hedges or as individual specimens. We highly recommend this plant be used in lieu of the non-native boxwood, which is much more susceptible to illness as well as being less beneficial ecologically.  

Inkberry can grow up to 12' tall in the right conditions and can spread by rhizome to form a thicket. In early summer this plant produces very small white flowers, which provide food for pollinators such as native bees, honeybees and butterflies.  This plant is dioecious, which means that a particular plant has only male or only female flowers, therefore, for berry production to occur, both male and female plants must be present and the female plant must be pollinated.  

This plant's black berries begin to appear in early fall and persist through the winter, and are an important food source for many types of birds including quail, songbirds and thrashers. It is also a larval host for various caterpillars, including that of the Henry's elfin butterfly.

Inkberry thrives in full sun to part sun and requires a medium to high amount of watering.