Wildlife Enhancement on Prince Edward Island
False or mountain holly (Nemopanthus mucronata)

As its name implies, false holly is not a holly at all. While you can find false holly growing side by side with winterberry holly, they are very different plants and easy to tell apart.

The winterberry holly is at its best when the orange berries cover the plants after leaf fall. In contrast, the false holly has maroon ber-ries and by the time the leaves fall, the berries are also mostly gone. These berries have long stems, while the winterberry holly berries have almost no stem. The nearly toothless leaves are alternate and simple, with a narrow oval shape. New woody growth of the false holly is deep purple. The shrub itself tends to be quite round and usually less than 2 m (6.56 ft) high.

False holly is another of our native shrubs that tolerates standing water, full sun and salt spray. It can be found in bogs, wet woodlands, marshes, low barrens and thickets - even in the shrubby areas behind the dunes along the north shore if the area is poorly drained. It can also be found in stands of old field white spruce growing on damp sites.

False holly is generally propagated by seed. Collect ripe berries in the fall (they seem to disappear after mid-October). Clean the seeds with a fine strainer and water. These seeds should be planted as soon as possible in a garden bed. The seeds have a double dormancy, meaning that the seeds won't germinate until the second spring or even later.

Very little has been written on the wildlife uses of this shrub, though some of the species generally listed for the closely related deciduous hollies include mockingbird, pileated woodpecker, robin, sapsucker, hermit thrush, brown thrasher, raccoons, skunk, and many species of squirrels and mice.

While these shrubs are common across the Island in suitable habitat, they are of special interest to native plant landscapers in improving the biodiversity and beauty around homes. False holly is an especially attractive native shrub that often has a rounded, pruned look without any work. It can be used as a specimen shrub, standing by itself, or in group plantings. With its roundness, lush green foliage and maroon berries, it is an outstanding landscape plant throughout the summer and fall, one that requires little in the way of special treatment.

DeGraaf, Richard. Trees, Shrubs and Vines for At-tracting Birds. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA, 1979.
Farrar, John L. Trees in Canada. Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd, Markham, ON, 1995.

The Macphail Woods Ecological Forestry Project, a member of the Island Sustainable Forest Partnership Cooperative with assistance from Natural Resources Canada, the Canadian Forest Service and the Model Forest Program have put together this series of information sheets concerning Wildlife Enhancement on Prince Edward Island. Thanks to Beth Hoar from GreenThumb Photography. Web development and maintenance by Chris Martin.