Keyed Out #065 — Ilex aquifolium

Question 1

Every individual is one sex only, pollen on some plants and fruit on others, so a freely flowering specimen may stand barren for life unless a partner grows nearby.

Accepted Answer

holly family

Question 2

Its scarlet fruit is not built around a single pit; press one apart and four small separate bony stones come out, each with one seed inside.

Accepted Answer

Aquifoliaceae

Question 3

Its flower clusters, and later its fruit clusters, sit in the angles above the leaf stalks, and no two of them ever stand directly across the twig from one another.

Accepted Answer

leaves borne singly up the stem

Question 4

Each small white bloom opens flat as a tiny cross, the segments set square to one another, with a pollen sac standing in every gap between them.

Accepted Answer

flower parts in fours

Question 5

Its blades are lacquer-bright above and buckled into stiff waves, each crest of the wave drawn out into a hard spine, and they run 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 7 cm) long.

Accepted Answer

Ilex aquifolium

Question 6

It holds its leathery foliage right through the winter, so the ripe fruit hangs among green leaves rather than on bare grey twigs.

Accepted Answer

Ilex aquifolium