My Species Story
It would have been impossible not to notice Yaupon Holly once we came back to Louisiana.
This hardy evergreen shrub with its small, scalloped leaves can be found just about everywhere across the state, especially in the understory of piney and mixed woods throughout the region. I have to imagine a stand of Loblolly Pines with an understory of heavy Yaupon is one of the more common ecologies across the state.
Being evergreen, it was one of the first plants I got to know well when we moved out to the Landry Property in the winter, and it can be found just about everywhere around here -- in some places, literally at the base of every large tree, there is at least one Yaupon established or trying to start. We have a few very large specimens, and a couple of cases where a huge female is right across from a huge male, so that we get lots of berries every year and a constant supply of seedlings on the forest floor.
The berries are an important winter forage for birds and animals of all kinds, and the scraggly, tangled shrubs make great nesting habitat. We've had Northern Cardinals using it here for sure, and I'm sure there are many others, like the Wood Thrushes I hear calling from the deeper parts of the woods.
It makes an excellent hedge and I love when I see it dominating the understory around the state instead of the invasive Chinese Privet.
For me, this is one of the iconic and inescapable plants of the pine-dominated uplands of Gulf South.
Last updated August 11, 2024.
