Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Hollyleaf cherry has favorable landscape recommendations, while the compilations reporting them leave its fire resistance uncertain.
The University of California Forest Products Laboratory's 1997 database names Prunus ilicifolia as holly-leaved cherry. Six references recommended this evergreen shrub for high-fire-risk areas. The result records the judgments in earlier plant lists; it does not give the shrub an ignition time or another measured burning result.
Diablo Firesafe Council includes the same scientific name in Table 1, reserved for plants with at least three favorable references. Hollyleaf cherry's row cites six numbered references: 8, 11, 12, 15, 26 and 30. Those citations let a reader trace the favorable recommendation back through the compilation.
The university warned that many contributing lists lacked scientific support and clear definitions. Diablo also acknowledges that most ranking terms in its references were undefined. The recommendations are therefore useful evidence of past landscape guidance, while leaving a homeowner without a settled fire-resistance assessment for the shrub itself.
Form
shrub
Rated in
California
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
The guide presents itself as fire performance ratings for common landscape plants in a fire-prone California setting. FireApproved publishes 104 exact owners as republished California context. It is not an independent rating, a current endorsement, or parcel suitability.
The UC Forest Products Laboratory says the guide covers properties of common California landscaping plants and was prepared for California fire agencies. FireApproved publishes 130 exact owners at historical California publication scope. The report is a 1997 compilation, not a current endorsement, site rating, or independent test of every row.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Native range
Current cited native range in CA.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
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.
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.
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.
Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interf…: Chapter 4, Landscape Vegetation Database [ucfpl-1997] (with its recommendation)
Fire Performance of Common Plants: Table 1 (favorable in 3 or more references) [diablo-guide-to-plants-three-reference-vote] (with its recommendation)
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.
Fire Performance of Common Plants (Guide to Plants) — Diablo Firesafe Council · live page captured 2026-08-29 · original sourceCorroborationMirrorlineage: ucfpl-berkeley resolves to Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants
“Table 1: favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references (refs 8,11,12,15,26,30)”
The Diablo Firesafe Council Guide to Plants lists Prunus ilicifolia (Holly-leaved cherry) as shrub, evergreen, in Table 1: plants with a favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references. The guide cites 6 of its 57 numbered references for this row (8,11,12,15,26,30). The guide states the ranking terms in its underlying references were mostly undefined and makes no attempt to rank within the list, and that fire performance is compromised without maintenance.
