By Richard Olmstead

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la…”

Holiday season is upon us and it’s a good time to rethink our attitude towards that venerable holiday decoration – holly. English holly, Ilex aquifolium, to be specific, is now a Class C noxious weed in Washington.

English holly is a European species introduced to the Pacific Northwest as an ornamental and as a commercial crop for seasonal greenery.

There are some 400 species of holly worldwide, but none are native to the PNW. Unlike most flowering plants, hollies have separate male and female plants; each have clusters of small white flowers, but only females bear the familiar bright red berries. All have shiny, dark green leaves with sharp teeth along the margins. The berries are attractive to birds, which eat

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