What is "ilex cassine"

Yaupon \Yau"pon\, n. (Bot.) A shrub ( Ilex Cassine) of the Holly family, native from Virginia to Florida. The smooth elliptical leaves are used as a substitute for tea, and were formerly used in preparing the black drink of the Indians of North Carolina. Called also South-Sea tea. [Written also yapon, youpon, and yupon.]

Dahoon \Da*hoon"\ (d[.a]*h[=oo]n"), [Origin unknown.] An evergreen shrub or small tree ( Ilex cassine) of the southern United States, bearing red drupes and having soft, white, close-grained wood; -- called also dahoon holly.

Ilex cassine is a holly native to the southeastern coast of North America, in the United States from Virginia to southeast Texas, in Mexico in Veracruz, and in the Caribbean on the Bahamas, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. It is commonly known as Dahoon Holly or Cassena, the latter derived from the Timucua name for I. vomitoria.

It is a large shrub or small tree growing to 10-13 m tall. The leaves are evergreen, 6-15 cm long and 2-4 cm broad, glossy dark green, entire or with a few small spines near the apex of the leaf. The flowers are white, with a four-lobed corolla. The fruit is a red drupe, 5-6 mm in diameter, containing four seeds.

As with other hollies, it is dioecious with separate male and female plants. Only the females have berries, and a male pollenizer must be within range for bees to pollinate them.

There are three varieties:

• Ilex cassine var. cassine (United States, Caribbean)
• Ilex cassine var. angustifolia Aiton. (United States)
• Ilex cassine var. mexicana (Turcz.) Loes. (Mexico)