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Yaupon holly

Ilex vomitoria · Aquifoliaceae · all Ilex records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 5 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Austin, Texas; Georgetown, Texas; Global; NC; North Carolina; North Carolina / southeastern US; Oklahoma; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US; southeastern US
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

Typed publication scope: 5 scopes across 5 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.
Firewise Plantings Can Help Protect Property · Official scoped edition
- OK; partial normalized coverage · 2022-08-28
  Oklahoma State University Extension frames the article around statewide Oklahoma heat, drought, wildfire, and plant selection and publishes five unambiguous genus owners. Ambiguous common names remain excluded, and the prose examples do not establish suitability for every Oklahoma site.
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.
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
- VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15
  Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in AL, AR, DC, DE, FL, GA, LA, MD, MS, NC, NJ, OH, OK, PA, SC, TX, VA, WV.
Native range: Current cited native range in AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, OK, SC, TX, VA.
Introduced / established: No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness: Documented minimum 7b; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

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.

Yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) — Photo: (c) Ashley De Leon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: shrub
USDA hardiness: Minimum 7b; upper limit not documented
Mature height: ~12 ft
Light: Full sun
Water need: low
Current cited native range: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, OK, SC, TX, VA
Grows in: AL, AR, DC, DE, FL, GA, LA, MD +10
Rated in: Austin, Texas; Georgetown, Texas; Global; NC +6
Family: Aquifoliaceae
Evidence: 24 cited sources

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

11

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

11 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

Alabama (AL)
Arkansas (AR)
Florida (FL)
Georgia (GA)
Louisiana (LA)
Mississippi (MS)
North Carolina (NC)
Oklahoma (OK)
South Carolina (SC)
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.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector · record ilex-vomitoria · 2016-wayback · as of 2026-08-26

Source prints 8 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Ilex vomitoria · exact match.

Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.

Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics · record ILVO · PLANTS Help Document 2022; characteristics cache retrieved 2026-08-23 · as of 2026-08-26

Minimum 7b · no upper limit documented · half zone precision · derived containing band

Exact source measurement: 7°F; mapped only to its containing half-zone.

Source taxon: Ilex vomitoria · source identifier match.

Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 74982, Temperature, Minimum (°F).

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.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 2 — 5–10 ft from the structure; maintained lawn or fuel breaks, with easily ignited evergreens avoided [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (mid-scale rating)
Firewise Plantings Can Help Protect Property: do not plant near a home or other structure [okstate-near-structures] (with its avoid rating)
North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: ilex-vomitoria [nc-toolbox-flammability-facet] (with its avoid rating)
Firewise Landscaping: Small trees/Large Shrubs [Travis County Firewise page sections] (with its avoid rating)
Firewise Plant Guide: Shrubs [Sun City plant-table sections] (with its avoid rating)

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.

Avoids (8)

Quantifying and ranking the flammability of ornamental shrubs in the southern United States — USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station + NIST (Long, Behm, Zipperer, Hermansen, Maranghides, Mell) · 2006 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“High flammability (whole-plant burns, NIST BFRL)”
Firewise Landscaping in North Carolina (E05-44596) — NC State University / NC Cooperative Extension + USFWS (Bardon, Van Druten) · 2005 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: nc-tree

“High flammability rating”
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) — Virginia Cooperative Extension / Virginia Tech (Appleton, Frenzel, Hillegass, Lyons, Steward — Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force) · 2009 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“H flammability”

Tolerant of most soil conditions and salt spray. Use in warmer climates only.
Fire-Resistant Landscaping in North Carolina (AG-874) — NC State Extension (Kays, Fawcett, Query, Thompson-Welch, Bardon) · 2025 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: nc-tree resolves to Firewise Landscaping in North Carolina (E05-44596)

“high flammability”
Firewise Plantings Can Help Protect Property — Oklahoma State University Extension · Grow column 2022-08-28 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: okstate-grow-2022

“contain oils and resins that are highly flammable”

The source says not to plant these taxa near a home or other structure.
North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox — plant profiles and flammability ratings — NC State Extension (plants.ces.ncsu.edu) · live facet capture accessed 2026-08-23 · original source Corroboration Expert-curated lineage: nc-tree resolves to Firewise Landscaping in North Carolina (E05-44596)

“high flammability” · original source

NC Toolbox facet capture lists "Ilex vomitoria" under the high flammability tag.
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, Yaupon — Ilex vomitoria. 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.
Firewise Plant Guide — Sun City Texas Firewise Group · updated January 14, 2015 · original source Corroboration HOA exhibit lineage: unknown

“high”

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

Mid-scale / conditional (1)

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector — USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area S&PF + state Firewise programs (WV, OH, PA, DE, DC, MD, NJ) · 2016-wayback · original source Primary evidence Keyed curation lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“AT RISK Firewise (3)”

Southern holly withred, yellow and white fruit. Very large shrub, weeping shrub and dwarf forms available.

Listed without a rating (15)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

15 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 5061” · score 5061 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 5008; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Hough1969-5; sampling may. Primary study Hough1969: Hough, W. A. (1969). Caloric Value of Some Forest Fuels of the Southern United States. Res. Note SE-120. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 5092” · score 5092 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 5009; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Hough1969-5; sampling may. Primary study Hough1969: Hough, W. A. (1969). Caloric Value of Some Forest Fuels of the Southern United States. Res. Note SE-120. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 3982” · score 3982 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 5010; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Hough1969-5; sampling may. Primary study Hough1969: Hough, W. A. (1969). Caloric Value of Some Forest Fuels of the Southern United States. Res. Note SE-120. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 205.39” · score 205.39 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 13115; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020a-1; sampling august. Primary study Tiller2020a: Tiller, M., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Conway, W., & Hung, I. (2020a). Initial investigation of seasonal flammability of three invasive East Texas forest understory fuels using thermogravimetric analysis. Forest ReseaRCH, 9, 230.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 183.62” · score 183.62 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 13119; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020a-1; sampling february. Primary study Tiller2020a: Tiller, M., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Conway, W., & Hung, I. (2020a). Initial investigation of seasonal flammability of three invasive East Texas forest understory fuels using thermogravimetric analysis. Forest ReseaRCH, 9, 230.
- “burning duration (s): 652.8” · score 652.8 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 13122; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020a-1; sampling august. Primary study Tiller2020a: Tiller, M., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Conway, W., & Hung, I. (2020a). Initial investigation of seasonal flammability of three invasive East Texas forest understory fuels using thermogravimetric analysis. Forest ReseaRCH, 9, 230.
- “burning duration (s): 759” · score 759 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 13126; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020a-1; sampling february. Primary study Tiller2020a: Tiller, M., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Conway, W., & Hung, I. (2020a). Initial investigation of seasonal flammability of three invasive East Texas forest understory fuels using thermogravimetric analysis. Forest ReseaRCH, 9, 230.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 183.32” · score 183.32 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 13129; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020b-1; sampling august and february. Primary study Tiller2020b: Tiller, M. B., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Hung, I.-K., Jerez, S., & Weng, Y. (2020). Spatial and seasonal flammability comparisons of native and exotic plants in the Post Oak Savannah, Blackland Prairie, and Pineywoods Ecoregions of Texas. Asheville, NC, USA.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 185.34” · score 185.34 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 13132; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020b-1; sampling august and february. Primary study Tiller2020b: Tiller, M. B., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Hung, I.-K., Jerez, S., & Weng, Y. (2020). Spatial and seasonal flammability comparisons of native and exotic plants in the Post Oak Savannah, Blackland Prairie, and Pineywoods Ecoregions of Texas. Asheville, NC, USA.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 186.45” · score 186.45 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 13135; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020b-1; sampling august and february. Primary study Tiller2020b: Tiller, M. B., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Hung, I.-K., Jerez, S., & Weng, Y. (2020). Spatial and seasonal flammability comparisons of native and exotic plants in the Post Oak Savannah, Blackland Prairie, and Pineywoods Ecoregions of Texas. Asheville, NC, USA.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 206.39” · score 206.39 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 13138; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020b-1; sampling august and february. Primary study Tiller2020b: Tiller, M. B., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Hung, I.-K., Jerez, S., & Weng, Y. (2020). Spatial and seasonal flammability comparisons of native and exotic plants in the Post Oak Savannah, Blackland Prairie, and Pineywoods Ecoregions of Texas. Asheville, NC, USA.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 198.55” · score 198.55 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 13141; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020b-1; sampling august and february. Primary study Tiller2020b: Tiller, M. B., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Hung, I.-K., Jerez, S., & Weng, Y. (2020). Spatial and seasonal flammability comparisons of native and exotic plants in the Post Oak Savannah, Blackland Prairie, and Pineywoods Ecoregions of Texas. Asheville, NC, USA.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 200.36” · score 200.36 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 13144; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device thermal analyzer; site Tiller2020b-1; sampling august and february. Primary study Tiller2020b: Tiller, M. B., Oswald, B. P., Frantzen, A., Hung, I.-K., Jerez, S., & Weng, Y. (2020). Spatial and seasonal flammability comparisons of native and exotic plants in the Post Oak Savannah, Blackland Prairie, and Pineywoods Ecoregions of Texas. Asheville, NC, USA.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4717.97844” · score 4717.97844 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 18008; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device flat flame burner; site Safdari2018-1; sampling ND. Primary study Safdari2018: Safdari, M.-S., Rahmati, M., Amini, E., Howarth, J. E., Berryhill, J. P., Dietenberger, M., Fletcher, T. H. (2018). Characterization of pyrolysis products from fast pyrolysis of live and dead vegetation native to the Southern United States. Fuel, 229, 151166.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 5121.89858” · score 5121.89858 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 18022; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device flat flame burner; site Safdari2018-1; sampling ND. Primary study Safdari2018: Safdari, M.-S., Rahmati, M., Amini, E., Howarth, J. E., Berryhill, J. P., Dietenberger, M., Fletcher, T. H. (2018). Characterization of pyrolysis products from fast pyrolysis of live and dead vegetation native to the Southern United States. Fuel, 229, 151166.

Fire-resistant shrubs instead

High bush blueberry
Vaccinium corymbosum

American beautyberry
Callicarpa americana

Common witchhazel
Hamamelis virginiana

Red chokeberry
Aronia arbutifolia

New Jersey tea
Ceanothus americanus

Buttonbush
Cephalanthus occidentalis

Fire-resistant shrubs listed above

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

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

Ilex vomitoria (Yaupon holly). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/ilex-vomitoria/. Last verified 2026-08-23.