Christmas Holly

It’s the food that tells me Christmas is almost here. Supermarket shelves groaning under the weight of boxed mince pies and Christmas puddings in heatproof plastic basins enticingly wrapped in red cellophane. Meanwhile, shop freezers have become polar wastelands of milk white turkeys, spinning and clanking like pack ice when disturbed by customers searching for the right weight. I enjoy Christmas food, of course, but doesn’t it taste much better when it is homemade? Especially the mince pies and Christmas pudding.

I missed Stir-Up Sunday, it was on Sunday, November 23rd, which is the last Sunday before Advent begins. This is the traditional day for families to mix their Christmas puddings, giving everyone the chance to make a wish as they take a turn stirring the mixture. However, I did bake a rich fruit cake packed with fruity currants, juicy sultanas, plump raisins, jewel-like chopped peel, sticky glace cherries, blanched and chopped almonds. It sits in a cake box now, maturing. Soon it will be time to apply a layer of marzipan, and once it has dried, I will sculpt a winter scene using stiff royal icing. To decorate my snowdrifts, I have the same plastic cake ornaments my mother used: a bristling fir tree, a red-breasted robin the same size as the tree, Santa with a bulging sack, a ‘Merry Christmas’ sign, and a sprig of green holly complete with five red berries. The holly decoration on my Christmas cake might be fake, but I always use real holly to top my Christmas pudding, even if the pudding comes from the supermarket. Fanny Cradock, the larger-than-life television cook and writer, one of Britain’s first celebrity chefs, always garnished her rounded Christmas pudding with a fresh holly sprig. And her secret to keeping it fresh for Christmas day was to stick it into a potato until it was needed. Unlike many of her recipes this useful trick works.

Holly is always associated with Christmas, and folklore has long credited it with magical powers. English Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is one of the few evergreen broad-leaved trees native to Northern Europe. You have probably seen it growing in hedgerows or in older, mixed forests. Holly’s dense conical outline, and branches of dark green shiny wet-looking leaves make it easy to identify.

Although you should never bring a Christmas pudding to the festive table without its sprig of holly, ironically holly is not edible. Enticing as the ruby berries look, the plant is toxic to us. But while humans shouldn’t attempt to eat this spiky leaved shrub, there are many animals that relish it. Mistle thrushes, blackbirds and robins are all fond of nutritious holly berries. The seeds of holly are notoriously difficult to germinate when plucked from a tree. However, seeds from berries that have been eaten and dispersed by birds germinate readily.

Holly blossom generally occurs between early spring and summer. The small, inconspicuous, four-petalled flowers are popular with butterflies and bees. Have you noticed that some holly trees flower yet never produce berries, while others reliably produce a good crop? This is because holly plants are either male or female and require the opposite sex nearby to produce fruit. If you are looking for a female holly that will produce berries don’t be misled by cultivar names. Assuming there is a nearby male holly plant, which plant would you purchase for berries, ‘Silver Queen’ or ‘Golden King’? In this case, the queen is a male, and the king is a female holly plant.

Prickly holly leaves might seem unpalatable to us, but they are eaten by many browsing animals. Look closely at a holly tree and you will notice that not all its leaves are equally prickly. It has long been observed that the lower leaves on holly trees are the prickliest and the higher leaves are smoother, a feature called heterophylly. This difference in leaf form has been put down to the effects of grazing by herbivores such as deer and goats. The most vulnerable (lower) leaves require the greatest protection. A recent study by Spanish scientists discovered the mechanism behind this phenomenon. They found that all the leaves on an individual holly tree have the same DNA sequence, but that recently browsed holly trees have had their DNA modified by a process called methylation. This mechanism uses a chemical to modify the DNA but doesn’t alter the genetic sequence. In other words, grazing causes holly trees to produce a molecule that results in the production of pricklier new leaves in the grazed area of the tree.

Some insects also feast on holly. The Holly Blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus) produces two generations a year. The spring generation caterpillars prefer feeding on the flower buds, berries and youngest leaves of holly, while the summer generation favour Ivy as their food source. Some insects even use holly’s own leaves for protection as they feed. Have you ever noticed ghostly trails inside dark green holly leaves? These are the feeding paths of the holly leaf miner, (Phytomyza ilicins) a leaf mining fly whose larvae burrow into leaves of the holly tree leaving characteristic pale leaf tunnels where they have been eating the green tissue.

Talking of feasting, if you overindulge during the festive period and are looking to take a healthy stroll, then consider a visit to Kew Gardens. Venture beyond the steamy Palm House and follow the signs that take you to Holly Walk. This pathway was once a public bridle path that ran between the boundary walls separating two royal estates and was known as Love Lane. The walk was planted with a collection of different holly species in 1874 by the then director Sir Joseph Hooker. As you progress along the path, take time to stop to look at some of the more than thirty different holly species planted here, making it one of Europe’s largest and most comprehensive collections of holly. The prettiest sight to see might be the holly on your own front door, but the best place to see holly in all its glorious diversity is Kew’s Holly Walk.

Further reading:

Plan your visit Kew Gardens – Here

Learn more about the Holly Blue butterfly – Here

Fany Cradock Cooks for Christmas – Here

Other Capital Gardens blogs – Here