Inkberry is a handsome broadleaf evergreen that in nature grows in the wet, acid, sandy soils along the Atlantic Coast from Long Island down all through Florida and along the Gulf coast to eastern Louisiana, with two spots in eastern Texas in bogs, dunes, bottomlands, and banks along water courses and lakes. It can grow in full sun into full light shade. It does well in heavy clay soils. It is slow growing of less than 1 foot/year and is long-lived. It has shallow, fibrous roots and it is easy to transplant. The female plants bear small black berries that are loved by birds, but holly fruit is toxic to humans. There are number of cultivars that are sold in the nursery trade, and are commonly planted in landscapes in the Mid-Atlantic and the South, and sometimes in the Midwest. This shrub does fine in sandy or silt or clay soils with a pH from 4.5 up to around 7.0. One thing I really like about this plant is that it is soft to touch and easy to work with. The similar Japanese Holly grows very stiff and has short, sharp branches that hurt when in close contact. Most of the cultivars tend to be female plants, but there are some males, and cultivars are selected to grow more compact and less leggy than the mother species.

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Honey bees get nectar from this plant which produces a dark amber honey.

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