Three Hollies and a Brunch

  Today did not go entirely as planned, but it's OK. We were invited to breakfast by Jeff and Delsey Wilson. Jeff is probably the foremost expert on Serpent Mound and he's highly knoweldgeable on other ancient topics. You may remember that it's on the North Country Trail and he gave us a private tour there when we hiked through. This is a model of the effigy. Jeff has a number of videos on YouTube, and has just published a 3-volume book on Serpent Mound.

Here are Nikki, Jeff, and his wife Delsey in Jeff's to-die-for library.

So, the part that didn't go as planned is that the car died on the way to their house. It can't be looked at until tomorrow. Jeff brought us home. We decided it was too icky-wet and muddy, plus cold, to do the hike we had in mind. Nikki did some errands and I did a bunch of little computer tasks that had been piling up. No sense getting bent out of shape. I'll know tomorrow what it needs.

Meanwhile, I have encountered three other holly species on this trip. I think I have them all IDed correctly now, so this is a good day to share them.

This is Horned Holly, Ilex cornuta. Yes, it's a vine! It's not native, but is used as an ornamental, and is not invasive. The leaves are funky, with only four points.

At least this one has the expected red berries, but I was surprised that it seems to be a holly, because the leaves don't have points. Actually, there are a lot of hollies that don't. This is a tree that's planted as an ornamental, Kurogane Holly, Ilex rotunda.

It was a very attractive tree. Native to the Orient.

This one was a total surprise. I certainly never expected this to be a holly. It does have red berries, but these didn't. I'm not sure why. I think it's the right season, but supposedly birds really like them, so maybe they were all eaten. And it's native to the southeast US. Yaupon Holly, Ilex vomitoria.

I'm kind of tired, so a rather laid-back day was just fine.

See Michigan Holly See American Holly