Native Plants

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A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Wednesday - May 26, 2010

From: Dallas, GA
Region: Southeast
Topic: Shrubs
Title: Plant identification of shrub in Georgia
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I have a bush that has red berries. It is evergreen and the leaves are a soft green. The berries are white at first and turn red. The bush is like a cluster of twigs that are in one area kind of like the yellow bell but it stands straight up and is about 5 ft. tall.

ANSWER:

First of all, it is very difficult—usually impossible—to identify a plant by a description only. Nevertheless, I did a little search for something to match your description and came up with these evergreen shrubs with red berries native to Georgia:

Ilex myrtifolia (myrtle dahoon)

Ilex cassine (dahoon) and here are photos and more information.

It is also possible that the shrub is not a North American native—in which case, it would not be in our Native Plant Database or our area of expertise.

If your plant doesn't happen to be one of the suggested shrubs above, please send us photos and we will do our best to identify it. To read instructions for submitting photos, visit Mr. Smarty Plants' Plant Identification page.

Here is a photo of Ilex myrtifolia. You can see photos of Ilex cassine in the links above.