Species
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Ilex aquifolium L.

English holly, English holly, Europäische Stechpalme (DE), Holly

Climate known 40 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ilex aquifolium, the holly, common holly, English holly, European holly, or occasionally Christmas holly, is a species of flowering plant in the family Aquifoliaceae, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia. It is regarded as the type species of the genus Ilex, which by association is also called holly. It is an evergreen tree or shrub found, for example, in shady areas of forests of oak and in beech hedges. In the British Isles it is one of very few native hardwood evergreen trees. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ilex aquifolium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ilex

Ilex or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. Ilex has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Holly”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Aquifoliaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland +22
Wild records
578 in range· 244 open

At a glance

Warmest month
21°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
882mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 85 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 882 mm a year, wettest October at 85 mm, driest April at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aquifolium croceum Raf.; Aquifolium ferox (Aiton) Mill.; Aquifolium ferox (Aiton) Mill. ex Raf.; Aquifolium heterophyllum Raf.; Aquifolium ilex Scop. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (631 mm of 882 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 882 mm a year, wettest October at 85 mm, driest April at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

882 mm a year at the habitat, 631 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 85 mm, driest April at 54 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 674 mm to 1384 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -3.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.6 °C, the absolute minimum -13.4 °C, about 54 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 21.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.5 °C in February (across the envelope cells -1.9 °C to 3.0 °C), warmest day 21.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 882 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 461 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -13.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 21.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost21.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-13.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 4–34RH 61–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 461 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 3–86 / 4–89 / 7–1112 / 10–1416 / 13–1819 / 16–2121 / 18–2321 / 18–2318 / 16–2014 / 12–169 / 7–116 / 4–8
Night °C1 / -2–31 / -2–32 / 0–44 / 3–68 / 7–911 / 10–1214 / 12–1514 / 12–1511 / 9–138 / 6–104 / 2–61 / -1–4
Rain mm79 / 55–12660 / 42–9470 / 47–10554 / 43–9667 / 52–10973 / 51–9876 / 49–10076 / 54–11276 / 57–12485 / 66–14983 / 61–14683 / 59–136
DLI5 / 4–910 / 8–1517 / 15–2327 / 25–3032 / 31–3634 / 32–3933 / 31–3828 / 26–3319 / 18–2412 / 10–166 / 5–104 / 3–8
RH %68 / 63–7065 / 62–6763 / 60–6561 / 59–6361 / 59–6361 / 59–6361 / 59–6461 / 59–6463 / 61–6565 / 63–6768 / 64–6969 / 64–71

Each figure is the median across the 461 grid cells holding the 574 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 683:3535 (55.825, -3.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -13.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 461 distinct grid cells holding the 574 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 683:3535 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 56.00_-3.125, lapse-corrected +94 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 222 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia· introduced: Belarus, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii, British Columbia, Ontario, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, California, Arkansas, Virginia
Extinct inSweden· recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.323, 6.048 · in the densest population, 409 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 578 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 244 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 18 km away. 206 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 578 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ilex aquifoliumIlex aquifoliumIlex aquifoliumIlex aquifoliumIlex aquifoliumIlex aquifoliumIlex aquifoliumIlex aquifolium

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Kieran Roy Powell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ilex aquifolium, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Altitudinal differentiation in growth and phenology among populations of temperate-zone tree species growing in a common garden
Yann Vitasse, Sylvain Delzon, Caroline Bresson, Richard Michalet (2009) · Canadian Journal of Forest Research
Taxus baccata L.
Peter A. Thomas, Anthony Polwart (2003) · Journal of Ecology
The past ecology of Abies alba provides new perspectives on future responses of silver fir forests to global warming
Willy Tinner, Danièle Colombaroli, Oliver Heiri, Paul D. Henne (2013) · Ecological Monographs
Host-Plant Selection in the Holly Leaf-Miner: Does Mother Know Best?
Graciela Valladares, John H. Lawton (1991) · Journal of Animal Ecology
Attenuation of UV radiation by plant cuticles from woody species
P. KRAUSS, Claus Markstädter, Markus Riederer (1997) · Plant Cell & Environment
Sorbus aucuparia L.
Olivier Raspé, Catherine Mary Findlay, Anne‐Laure Jacquemart (2000) · Journal of Ecology
Where do seeds go when they go far? Distance and directionality of avian seed dispersal in heterogeneous landscapes
Tomás A. Carlo, Daniel Garcı́a, Daniel Martínez, Jason M. Gleditsch (2012) · Ecology
Shade tolerance, photoinhibition sensitivity and phenotypic plasticity of Ilex aquifolium in continental Mediterranean sites
Fernando Valladares, Sagrario Arrieta, Ismael Aranda, Daniel Lorenzo (2005) · Tree Physiology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ilex 9 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.