Description

The hollyleaf cherry is an attractive and adaptable garden subject. The leaves are a shiny dark green, with spines on the margins for which this tree is named. The form is rounded and upright. Starting as a multi-trunk shrub, Hollyleaf cherry matures into a small single-trunk tree. Small white flowers transition to bright red fruit in the fall, which are edible though mostly pit. Note that the fruit can stain so care must be taken when siting the tree. Hollyleaf cherry is wonderfully tolerant of pruning and is disease resistant, so it may be used as a native hedge. Hollyleaf cherry is native to the coastal and interior coastal regions of California from The San Francisco Bay Area on into Mexico. It is a cornerstone wild plant in my area of western Santa Clara County.