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United States / Grow / Possum-haw holly

Possum-haw holly (Ilex decidua)
Photo: no rights reserved (CC0), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Possum-haw holly

Ilex decidua · Aquifoliaceae · all Ilex records · Wikipedia

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Possum-haw holly is generally rated fire resistant, but Travis County guidance keeps it outside the first 30 feet around a structure.

North Carolina’s extension service repeatedly calls Ilex decidua low in flammability. Its earlier four-band scale maps low to a favorable verdict, and its later three-band scale does the same. Oregon State University Extension Service also profiles possum-haw among fire-resistant plants for Willamette Valley growing conditions. Together, those findings put the balance on the fire-resistant side.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension in Travis County gives different practical guidance. It lists possum-haw among plants to avoid in Zone 1, the area within 30 feet of a structure, and says those plants should be restricted to Zones 2 or 3. This addresses placement in an Austin-area landscaping plan, while the North Carolina sources rate flammability and Oregon State identifies plants suited to a particular region.

The Forest Service’s eastern plant selector falls between those positions, placing possum-haw in the second and moderately favorable band of its four-part Firewise scale. Possum-haw is a shrub reaching about 8 feet at maturity, with moderate water needs. The overall evidence supports calling it fire resistant, but a homeowner following Travis County guidance should still reserve it for areas beyond the first 30 feet.

Form
shrub
Mature height
~8 ft
Light
Part sun
Water need
moderate
Rated in
Austin, Texas; Georgetown, Texas; NC; North Carolina +3
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
5 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Austin, Texas; Georgetown, Texas; NC; North Carolina; North Carolina / southeastern US; Oregon (Willamette Valley); eastern US
Typed publication scope: 4 scopes across 4 cited fire sources
  • Fire-Resistant Landscaping in North Carolina (AG-874) · Official scoped edition
    • NC; complete normalized coverage · 2025-03-26

      The complete three-table AG-874 plant list is explicitly for North Carolina and contains 202 low-, medium-, or high-flammability rows. FireApproved accounts for all source rows under its strict taxonomy and lineage rules; source scope does not establish local suitability at a particular North Carolina site.

  • Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley (EM 9103) · Official scoped edition
    • Willamette Valley (OR footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-02-01

      OSU Extension says EM 9103 highlights fire-resistant plants that thrive under Willamette Valley growing conditions. FireApproved publishes 172 exact owners only as valley context. The guide shares the PNW 590 lineage and is not a second independent vote or statewide site clearance.

  • Firewise Plant Guide · Official scoped edition
    • Sun City Texas, Georgetown (TX footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-01-14

      The guide is authored for the Sun City Texas community in Georgetown. FireApproved publishes 142 exact owners only as community-level context. It is an archived HOA exhibit with unknown rating lineage, not a current statewide Texas source or an independent Tier 1 determination.

  • Firewise Landscaping (Travis County) · Official scoped edition
    • Travis County, Austin area (TX footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2024-01-16

      Texas A&M AgriLife Extension publishes this page through its Travis County horticulture program. FireApproved publishes 56 exact owners and retains the source's zone and warning conditions. This is county/Austin regional context, not a second statewide Texas table or site clearance.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AL, AR, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MO, MS, NC, NJ, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, AR, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MO, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA.
USDA hardiness
2 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

19

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

19 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alabama (AL)
  • Arkansas (AR)
  • District of Columbia (DC)
  • Florida (FL)
  • Georgia (GA)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Kansas (KS)
  • Kentucky (KY)
  • Louisiana (LA)
  • Maryland (MD)
  • Missouri (MO)
  • Mississippi (MS)
  • North Carolina (NC)
  • Oklahoma (OK)
  • South Carolina (SC)
  • Tennessee (TN)
  • Texas (TX)
  • Virginia (VA)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (4)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)

Avoids (1)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)

  • Firewise Landscaping (Travis County) — Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Travis County · page modified 2024-01-16 · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: unknown

    “Plants to Avoid for Zone 1 (within 30′ of Structure)”

    Listed as Holly, Possumhaw — Ilex decidua. The page says Zone 1 entries should be restricted to zones 2 or 3; all-zone entries are highly flammable due to volatile oils or growth habit.

Mid-scale / conditional (2)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)

  • Firewise Plant Guide — Sun City Texas Firewise Group · updated January 14, 2015 · original source Corroboration HOA exhibit lineage: unknown

    “medium”

    The table rates Holly, Possumhaw — Ilex decidua medium for flammability hazard, defined as the ease a plant can burn at high temperatures for a prolonged time.

Same genus in the directory · the Ilex group page

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Ilex decidua (Possum-haw holly). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/ilex-decidua/. Last verified 2026-08-23.