Description

Family Aquifoliaceae
Originating from Canary Islands

• Stunning broad and glossy leaves form a small tree with architectural form.
• White flowers are produced, followed by large red berries.
• Tough and easy to grow in any soil and in pots in sun or part shade.

A rare and stunning small tree with big glossy evergreen leaves borne on a fantastic architectural branching habit, making an arresting specimen in woodland and contemporary gardens. Forming a stout and strong upright trunk, its branches grow in an attractive symmetrical wide-spreading pattern, which can be accentuated with light pruning to reveal its shapely structure, with near-horizontal branches. The new shoots are glossy and an impressive near-black/burgundy color, contrasting spectacularly with the new leaves that emerge with a cerise pink margin and a reddish flush to their lustrous golden-green colour. As they mature, they darken to a deep rich green, becoming a broad and lush oval shape with a pointed tip. Thick and rigidly tough, the leaves have almost no spines around their margins.

In early summer, Ilex perado produces white waxy-looking flowers at the base of the leaf stems, followed by striking red fruits on female trees if fertilised by a male. The fruits are large and much more showy than our native holly and appear en masse along the length of the branches.

Easy to grow in any but thin chalky soil, and in pots. It benefits from some woodland shelter in full sun or part shade.

Height and spread after 10 – 2- years 4m x 4m.