Does a 'China Girl' Need a 'China Boy?': Love Among the Holly Bushes
Does a ‘China Girl’ need a ‘China Boy’ in order for this gorgeous green holly to make those awesome little red berries (that everybody likes to dangle from their fireplace mantels during the holidays)? Sexual dimorphism notwithstanding, love among the holly bushes can be complicated.
Great news, everybody! My China Girl holly bush had babies! Have a cigar!!!
I just wish I knew who the daddy was…
So this is what it’s come to? Writing about plant sexual politics? Yes. This is the reality. This is MY reality. (Sigh.) Sound bad to you? I can see why it might. There’s a whole lot of things going on in the world that I’m sure a whole lot of people would consider a whole lot more interesting. Plant sex? Oh yeah. Sounds like it’s right up there on the Thrill-O-Meter with watching rust creep up your VW’s exhaust pipe, or waiting for a Windows 11 update to wrap up on your Mac. Unless, of course, you’re a botanist. Or me.
If you’re a botanist, it’s all good. Great subject. Totally engrossing. But you’d already know everything there is to know about it and probably wouldn’t be reading this anyway.
And if you’re not a botanist… At least let me plead my case for writing about this stuff.
Listen, as bad as it sounds, there are some upsides to writing (and making all the field observations and doing all the reading that goes along with the writing) about plant sexuality. For one thing, it actually is a really interesting topic. Especially when it comes to plants from the ranks of the Ilex genus, or hollies. Just like with humans, there are actually girl hollies and boy hollies. Which I think, in an of itself, is really kind of cool and interesting. And when something totally bizarre and unexpected happens, like it did with my own China Girl holly, it makes the whole subject even cooler and more interesting. And there is one other upside to getting myself all wrapped up in plant sexual politics that’s worth mentioning: I can avoid human sexual politics by staying the hell out of my beloved better half Dee Dee’s way (her words, not mine) while I regurgitate what I’ve learned about the less formidable – and slower to anger – females of the leafy green variety, and their male counterparts.
But don’t let me stray…
Here’s the totally unexpected and bizarre upshot: My China Girl holly bush had babies. By that, I mean that it produced fruit. A few of those cute little red berries. It’s not supposed to do that without a China Boy nearby. And there is no China Boy. Not nearby, and not anywhere else. Immaculate Conception? Not quite. But still pretty cool, and still pretty damned interesting. (And a lot less volatile than human sexual politics.) Here you go…
Some Terminology
I want to familiarize you, in at least a very basic way, with some terms and definitions that will help put “the Miracle of the Michiana Shores Spontaneously Berry-Producing Holly Bush” into some context for you. There’s some pretty basic stuff here, but the associated links throughout this section (as well as the suggested reading list at the end of this article) will take you as deep as you’ll probably ever want to go.
Dioecious and Monoecious Plants, Perfect Flowers, and Parthenocarpy
Hollies belong to the genus Ilex, which is part of the clade, Angiospermae, or angiosperms. Angiosperms, as a clade, are made up of plants that bear flowers and fruit, and are the largest and most diverse group of plants on Earth. They make up approximately 80% of the all of the green plants known to science. The genus Ilex is unusual among angiosperms as it’s comprised almost exclusively of dioecious plants, which account for only about 6% of all angiosperms. Dioecious plants produce male flowers (which have the pollen producing male reproductive structures called stamens) and female flowers (which have the ovule producing female reproductive structures called carpels/pistils) on separate plants, and are therefore, as individual plants, either male or female. This is the case with my particular species of holly. My China Girl, Ilex x meserveae ‘Mesog,’ is a female plant. It’s got female flowers only growing on it. Ilex x meserveae ‘Mesdob,’ or China Boy, produces only male flowers. A China Girl is a female holly, and a China Boy is a male. The vernacular makes sense. In the case of dioecious plants, only female plants, with their female flowers, can bear fruit. A female dioecious plant, and its flowers, can only be pollinated (with a few important exceptions) when a bee, for example, first visits a nearby male dioecious flower, picks up pollen, then deposits that pollen onto the carpels/pistils of that female plant’s flowers. I’ll explain the visual difference between male and female holly flowers in just a bit.
Monoecious plants produce separate male and female flowers on the same plant – Simple: one plant, separate male and female flowers growing on it. As in the case of dioecious plants and their flowers, only female monoecious flowers are capable of producing fruit. Pollination happens when a pollinator picks up pollen from the male flowers on a particular plant, then visits and deposits the pollen onto a female flower on that same plant. Corn and squash are two common examples of monoecious plants. Since the female flower of a monoecious plant can be fertilized by the pollen of a male flower on the same plant, that plant is capable of what is known as self-pollination.
Plants that produce perfect, or hermaphroditic flowers, are by far the most common form of angiosperm. An individual perfect (hermaphroditic) flower contains both male reproductive structures (stamens) and female reproductive structures (carpels/pistils). In the case of almost every perfect flower, self-pollination occurs. Here, a visiting pollinator, or even the movement caused by a breeze, transfers pollen from the stamen to the carpel/pistil within the same flower. Roses and lilies are common examples of perfect, or hermaphroditic, flowers. Since no other plants or flowers are necessary for fertilization, plants that produce perfect flowers are also capable of self-pollination.
Parthenocarpy in the plant world basically amounts to fruit production by a female flower, on a female dioecious plant, without the benefit of fertilization with pollen. It’s important to note here that although a parthenocarpic plant will produce fruit in this way, that fruit will not have seeds. And the yield of fruit that is produced in parthenocarpic fashion on a specific female plant will be much lower than if that plant’s flowers had received the benefit of fertilization with the pollen of a male plant. But the main takeaway here is the fact that, by virtue of a variety of either natural, or bioengineered mechanisms, parthenocarpic plants are self-fertilizing female plants which require no pollen or pollination in order to produce fruit. In other words, these ladies don’t need a man. Plain and simple.
Does a 'China Girl' Need a 'China Boy?' Not the Independent, Self-Sufficient Female Holly in My Garden!
I’m seriously starting to think that my China Girl holly is really something very special. Or at least something very abnormal. I’m loaded up with info and field observations, and the wheels are really turning. This China Girl has made plant sexual politics the burning issue in my zone 5B/6A garden, and in my sad, pathetic life, in general.
And it all started in the late fall of 2021.
Berried Treasure?
I first inroduced this bush to RGG readers in an article back in October of 2021. In that article, I’d erroneously reported that my China Girl did not produce any berries in 2021. This mistake was understandable for a couple of reasons. The first reason had to do with my familiarity with the dioecious nature of these bushes. Common wisdom held that a China Girl needed a China Boy within three or four-hundred feet in order for it to bear fruit. I have no China Boy growing in my garden, and there isn’t one growing anywhere else on my land, or within at least a mile of my property. I had no reason to think that berries would be growing on my female plant, so I didn’t look for any. The second reason had to do with the fact that I was building a giant arbor/trellis stucture in my garden at the time that the article was written and published in 2021, and I just didn’t pay any attention to the China Girl bush (or any other plants in my garden) while I was humping to get the thing built. It wasn’t until after I finished construction, and was starting to rake up the masses of dropped autumn leaves covering the garden, that I noticed the four or five little red berries growing on the west side of my China Girl. This was a head-scratcher.
Does a ‘China Girl’ need a ‘China Boy’ to Make Cute Little Berries? Theory vs Fact.
Now, here’s where all that groovy terminology I hit you with earlier is gonna really come in handy. It sure did for me when I first immersed myself in it, and it ultimately helped me to realize that my China Girl is not only independent and self-sufficient, but a major rule breaker, as well.
Over the winter of 2021/2022, I spent quite a bit of time doing some pretty extensive research, and cramming as much info about plant sexuality into my head as I could. And in the spring, I paid special attention to my China Girl’s little white flowers, which are really pretty and fairly abundant, but are small to the point of being pretty much inconspicuous. I had to get down on my hands and knees to really check them out. I got up close and personal with these little blooms so I could verify that 1) My China Girl really was a girl, 2) My China Girl was not monoecious, and 3) My China Girl did not have perfect (hermaphroditic) flowers. I did verify all of the above. All of this bush’s flowers were female. Male flowers of this species have four visible stamens (the flower’s male reproductive structures) sticking out, like little, yellow-tipped antennae from the center of each flower. China Girl flowers have a light green “mound,” which is the ovule-containing carpel (the flower’s female reproductive structure), in the center of the bloom. All of the flowers on my China Girl were definitely female flowers. There wasn’t a male flower or a perfect flower (containing both stamens and carpels) in sight.
Theory. After reading as much as I could find about holly reproduction (and after talking with a few of my gardener and horticulturalist friends), I absorbed the following salient points about the genus Ilex and the reproductive proclivities of its various species, varieties, and cultivars:
- Almost all known hollies are dioecious. And in the case of almost every known species/variety/cultivar of dioecious holly (there are a couple of known exceptions, which you’ll read about in a second), a female plant absolutely needs the presence of a male plant in order to produce fruit. China Girl and China Boy are dioecious.
- There are very few species/varieties/cultivars of holly that produce perfect flowers. The only two that I’ve found through my research so far are the Oakland Holly (Ilex x ‘Magland’) and the Oak Leaf Holly (Ilex x ‘Conaf’). These plants are not dioecious. They produce flowers with both male and female reproductive structures, and can therefore self-pollinate.
- I’ve only been able to learn of two hollies that are able to produce fruit through parthenocarpy: the Nellie Stevens Holly (Ilex x ‘Nellie R. Stevens’) and the Burford Chinese Holly (Ilex cornuta ‘Burfordii’). Even though these plants are dioecious, the female plants can produce fruit without the need for pollinization, and therefore do not need the presence of male holly plants in order to produce berries. As I wrote earlier, when these plants produce fruit in this way, the berries do not have seeds, and the amount of berries produced is very low. When the flowers of one of these plants are fertilized with pollen from a male plant, the berries do have seeds, and they’re produced in much greater profusion. By all accounts, China Girl hollies are not known to be parthenocarpic. At least not yet.
Fact. I think all three of the above points are really interesting, and it was a lot of fun picking up all this cool holly info. But the main thing I got out of my research was that my China Girl holly is definitely marching to the beat of its own drummer. Based on all of my observations of the bush itself, and the field conditions in which it grows, and the above points of info, I’ve concluded that my female dioecious China Girl holly, despite all the theory that would seem to dictate otherwise, is indeed parthenocarpic. I’m almost 100% certain of this. Here’s why:
- It produced fruit (albeit in a very, very limited quantity – only a few little berries) even though it doesn’t have perfect flowers, and even though there are no male holly bushes (or male holly flowers) around. And that extremely tiny yield of only a few little berries is consistent with the sparse berry-producing yield of a female dioecious holly involved in parthenocarpic fruit production.
- Unless my vision was totally wrecked, there were no seeds in the two berries I dissected at the end of winter last year (I didn’t have the heart to remove any of the three or four berries that the bush produced this year – they’re still dangling in place, looking really pretty). Admittedly, my vision’s not perfect. But I used a magnifying glass, and I simply could not see any seeds. This apparent absence of seeds would indicate that the berries were produced as a result of a parthenocarpic fertilization mechanism.
- Although it is remotely possible that some pollinating vector (a bird, a bee, a butterfly, the wind, a ghost) did in fact deposit pollen on my bush’s flowers, it’s highly unlikely. I know my neighbors, and, aside from the fact that those of them who live closest to me live substantially beyond even the most generous measure of requisite China Boy pollinating distance, none of them have holly bushes – China Boys or otherwise – growing on their properties. And the fact that my China Girl has produced limited berry yields two years in a row gives further weight to my position: Seriously, what are the chances that a few grains of China Boy pollen would find their way across the miles to impregnate my chaste China Girl not once, but two years in a row? Nope. No way.
I’ll use a complicated linear equation to explain the situation mathematically: Zero perfect flowers + Limited berry production + Zero seeds + Zero China Boy + Insurmountable pollination distance + Consistent, extremely limited fruiting two years in a row = One improbable parthenocarpic virgin of a China Girl Holly!
(Glad I don’t have to go looking for the daddy.)
Keep Your Evergreen Hollies Really Green
Got an excellent product rec here for you. Regular readers and subscribers will know that I’m always singing the praises of Espoma Organic Holly-tone fertilizer here on The Renaissance Garden Guy. I recommend it because it works.
Espoma Organic Holly-tone is the almost perfect fertilizer for acid-loving plants like hollies, gardenias, rhodies, azaleas, and pieris. It’s an organic formulation with an N-P-K of 4-3-4, a multitude of beneficial microbes, and a respectable amount of sulfur (5%) on tap for performing its own bit of soil acidifying. Like I said, it’s almost perfect. With the exception of the potting mix I used when I first planted it three autumn seasons back, my holly has never been fed anything but Espoma Holly-tone. I highly recommend it. Click the #advertisement link to learn more, or to order it here, directly from Amazon.
For Further Reading
The following links will take you to some excellent sources of information regarding the topic discussed in this article. I used the info from many of these links in my own research. If you’ve got a further interest in this, and associated topics, I highly recommend checking these sources out.
“Identifying Male and Female Holly Bushes” by David Beaulieu. The Spruce
“Monoecious vs. Dioecious Plants: Differences and Examples” by David Beaulieu. The Spruce
“True Love and Holly Berries” by Joanna Shires, Sampson Nursery, Inc.
“Plant reproductive morphology.” Wikipedia
“Plant sexuality.” Bionity.com
No-man’s-land
So, does a ‘China Girl’ need a ‘China Boy’ in order to produce berries? Conventional wisdom (along with all of the science and theory behind it) says “Yes.” But the parthenocarpic China Girl, who’s smashing conventional sexual norms and mores in my garden, evidently has a different take…
“A man? You’ve got to be kidding.”
Whoa. Talk about sexual politics. I think I’d better stay out of Dee Dee’s way, and the holly bush’s, too.
Thanks for sticking around for this one, gang. As always, your incredibly kind interest and readership are dearly appreciated.
Cheers, and Happy Gardening!
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Thanks for the botanical minutia and the humor! I now feel confident to go out and I.D. my two hollies which were mature specimens (4’x5′ each) when I purchased my home in NC. Old barely readable nursery tags at their bases said “China Girl” and “China Boy” but I never got more than 2 or 3 tiny berries on either plant. Mine must be dioecious, possible parthenocarpic (thanks for giving me confidence to use those terms!) and I am going to buy a Boy. HOWEVER – I did read that some nurseries are putting Boy and Girl into One Pot! So maybe, there is a China Boy in there somewhere, being totally overpowered by his DeeDee (I mean) his Girl. That wouldn’t explain the lack of seeds. But lack of eyesight could explain that at my age. Well, I’m off to try to find a berry so I can try to cut it in half, to try to see the seed. Thanks for reviving my sex life!
Thanks so much, Amy, for reading the piece and for your excellent comments. It sounds as if you’re performing very exacting due diligence. And yes, I’m familiar with the practice of sticking a male and female in the same pot that some growers/nurseries are pulling. That’s never a good idea (for overcrowding reasons). It really sounds as if you’ve got two ‘China Girls’ on your hands (you’ll know that this is the case if the berries are seedless). My own gal has produced a massive amount of seedless, sterile berries this year. This phenomenon is so fascinating, I think. In any case, I’m excited to hear if your bushes are parthenocarpic ‘China Girls’ and have produced seedless berries the “immaculate conception” way, or if a ‘China Boy’ is really there. Please keep us posted here on The RGG. I guarantee you that a whole bunch of RGG readers – and I – are curious to know how this turns out. Thanks once again for reading the article, Amy, and for relating this garden sexual cliffhanger! Can’t wait to hear more about it!
John, very interesting and informative article as always. Perhaps you have discovered the missing llink of the holly world. I know that there has to be a scientific answer to this mystery! Please let us know when you find it.
Thank you for reading the article, Kevin. I can only conclude, at least at this point, that this bush has self-fertilized via parthenocarpic mechanism. I don’t know what else it could be. Thanks again, Kevin!
Brilliant, John! Interesting and highly instructive approach to the issue of the holly; this confirms to me that Nature surprises us with miracles everyday. My incursions into the theme of this species is from the point of view of defense lawyer of blackbirds, accused by my mother of the theft and sudden disappearance of the precious, abundant, (and apparently delicious) scarlet fruits of the hollies of our garden. Apart from that, I had not questioned the subject of sex (lack of habit, I imagine), I assumed they all produce berries, since all of those in our garden do so in abundance; I guess two are“Oak Leaf holly” and the other four “Burford chinese holly”, I should ask the gardener the next time he comes. At last I have something for which to thank this acid soil (apart from producing very tasty strawberries)!
Thank you kindly, Maria! I’m so glad that you enjoyed this one! It really is a rather interesting phenomenon. I’m happy to hear that your hollies produce so vigorously, and that the blackbirds are happy and well-fed! It would be interesting to know which particular hollies you’ve got growing there. I’ll bet they’re gorgeous! Thank you once again, Maria!
Fascinating as usual,
Learning all the time something new!!!
Enjoyed very much 🌺💖🙏
Thanks for giving this one a read, Roxxy. I’m glad you found it interesting. I really thought so, too. It was a lot of fun learning about this type of plant, and I’m really surprised by the actions of my own ‘China Girl.’ It’s a legitimate mystery. This particular holly is not known to do this. Thanks again, as always, Roxxy. I’m so grateful for your interest and readership.
Fascinating and interesting reading. You provide masses of information information in a fun and easily readable manner
Thank you so much, Rick. I really appreciate that. And I thank you for reading the article, and of course, for your continued interest. I’m very glad to hear that you’ve found this particular piece palatable. Again, I truly appreciate it.
Who knew?! This is really quite interesting.
I’m so glad you found it so, Mary. Thank you! I do agree. The whole thing is kind of miraculous, really. If only in a minor league kind of way. But it really did surprise me. Thank you once again!