Yaupon Holly aka ilex-vomitoria
Disclaimer first... I'm 99.9% sure these photos are of Yaupon Holly but it's been 13 years since I've seen one. I won't forget these photos or this post... The next time I take cattle south I'll stop and check a few plants.
All along the coastal plain from Texas, to Florida up to Virginia... Yaupon is fairly common. But just a few miles from the coastal plain and they are nowhere to be found in the wild... Except today I found one almost 80 miles from the coastal plain. I think I found a variety of Yaupon that was once widely used as an ornamental. I think what I found is Ilex vomitoria var. pendula. It has all the characteristics. Wild native Yaupon, which is what I have seen in the past, is slightly different.
Of interest to preppers is the caffeine content which is quite high. 4 or 5 leaves steeped for 10 minutes or so produces a very strong black drink. However since Yaupon is an "Emetic" (an agent that induces vomiting)... 3 or 4 mugs of "yaupon coffee" and you'll wish you hadn't. Unless you like the feel of cool porcelain on your forehead. But 1 strong mug? Why not?
Although it has some medicinal uses very little is written about it and its cousin, ilex opaca aka American Holly. They treat various intestinal maladies and as an additive in flu formulas but have never been widely used except by native tribes of the southeastern US, especially the Creek Tribes of Alabama. It was a manly drink and one had high standing in the tribe if one could down several cups... and keep them down...
This native usage comes to us mainly from a man named Billy Powell. Billy Powell is also known to most americans by another name - "Osceloa", the great Seminole warrior. Seminoles were in fact an offshoot of the Creek tribes, known as lesser Creeks.
I’ve posted about another plant that has caffeine here
Preppers Should Invest in Coffee
Cleavers
I urge everyone to read the following article about yaupon and it’s history, quite interesting.
Credit for the following goes to Green Deane at his website... which every forager should have bookmarked.
http://www.eattheweeds.com/yaupon-holly-ilex-vomitoria/
The Yaupon Holly is North America’s version Yerba Mate, which is Ilex paraguariensis. Preparation of Yaupon (YAH-pon) ranges from putting four or five leaves in hot water — not boiling — for five or six minutes to elaborate drying, steaming, roasting and percolation. Some brew leaves and twigs. Not only does Yaupon have more caffeine than any other species in North America it also is high in antioxidants. A 2009 article in the Journal of Economic Botany recommended it become a commercial crop. Not surprising, a 1919 journal article recommended it as well. Spanish colonists in early Florida drank Yaupon tea. One priest in 1615 wrote: “There is no Spaniard or Indian who does not drink it every day in the morning or evening.” They called it “Indian Tea” or Cacina (the latter a name that confounded botanists for a few centuries.) In the 1700s English settlers in the Carolinas drank the “Indian tea” daily. It was very popular in the second half of the 1800s but fell out of favor. Scholars don’t know why but one would think the proliferation of coffee might of had something to do with it.
Left on its own the Yaupon Holly is a spindly understory tree, never growing much presence or height. The best examples of the species I know are cultivated ones in the landscaping of the Winter Park Library, in Winter Park, Florida. It’s easy to miss the native tree in the forest. However, two of its cultivars are very well known.
Ilex vomitoria var. nana
If nature makes a slight variation in a species it is called a variety. If man makes a variety it is called a cultivar. Two cultivars of the Ilex vomitoria are quite common. The most common is Ilex nana, or Ilex vomitoria var. nana. It is the ubiquitous hedge plant of the south. In fact there are some 17 different varieties of it. Thus finding a caffeine substitute is not difficult at all. The only question is how wholesome is the water and the environment where the hedge is located.
Ilex vomitoria var. pendula
The second cultivar is more dramatic, the Weeping Holly, or Ilex vomitoria var. pendula. It makes a very attractive statement in landscaping growing into a mid-sized tree with red berries (not edible.) Sometimes it is also trimmed to look like an upside down bowl. Researchers report that under controlled agricultural conditions the pendula variation produced the most caffeine of all. The amount of caffeine in the “vomitorias” varies depending upon how much nitrogen they are fed. More nitrogen, more caffeine.
Many years ago in the Orlando Public Library I found a crumbling book written Dr. William A. Morrill. a plant PhD. He wrote in 1940 the best Yaupon “tea” was made by using an equal mix of chopped brown dry roasted leaves and chopped steamed green leaves. While Yaupon Holly tea does have a caffeine it is practically free of tannin, which reduces bitterness considerably.
The odd finding, according to the researchers however, was the presence of anti-oxidants in the leaves. This was influenced by sunlight. The more sunlight the plant received the more anti-oxidants, or perhaps said correctly, the less shade the more anti-oxidants. While the researchers said more testing was needed it would appear that an Ilex vomitoria var. pendula grown in full sun and fed a high-nitrogen fertilizer would produce the maximum amount of caffeine and anti-oxidants. They recommended it become a commercial crop.
Disclaimer first... I'm 99.9% sure these photos are of Yaupon Holly but it's been 13 years since I've seen one. I won't forget these photos or this post... The next time I take cattle south I'll stop and check a few plants.
All along the coastal plain from Texas, to Florida up to Virginia... Yaupon is fairly common. But just a few miles from the coastal plain and they are nowhere to be found in the wild... Except today I found one almost 80 miles from the coastal plain. I think I found a variety of Yaupon that was once widely used as an ornamental. I think what I found is Ilex vomitoria var. pendula. It has all the characteristics. Wild native Yaupon, which is what I have seen in the past, is slightly different.
Of interest to preppers is the caffeine content which is quite high. 4 or 5 leaves steeped for 10 minutes or so produces a very strong black drink. However since Yaupon is an "Emetic" (an agent that induces vomiting)... 3 or 4 mugs of "yaupon coffee" and you'll wish you hadn't. Unless you like the feel of cool porcelain on your forehead. But 1 strong mug? Why not?
Although it has some medicinal uses very little is written about it and its cousin, ilex opaca aka American Holly. They treat various intestinal maladies and as an additive in flu formulas but have never been widely used except by native tribes of the southeastern US, especially the Creek Tribes of Alabama. It was a manly drink and one had high standing in the tribe if one could down several cups... and keep them down...
This native usage comes to us mainly from a man named Billy Powell. Billy Powell is also known to most americans by another name - "Osceloa", the great Seminole warrior. Seminoles were in fact an offshoot of the Creek tribes, known as lesser Creeks.
I’ve posted about another plant that has caffeine here
Preppers Should Invest in Coffee
Cleavers
I urge everyone to read the following article about yaupon and it’s history, quite interesting.
Credit for the following goes to Green Deane at his website... which every forager should have bookmarked.
http://www.eattheweeds.com/yaupon-holly-ilex-vomitoria/
The Yaupon Holly is North America’s version Yerba Mate, which is Ilex paraguariensis. Preparation of Yaupon (YAH-pon) ranges from putting four or five leaves in hot water — not boiling — for five or six minutes to elaborate drying, steaming, roasting and percolation. Some brew leaves and twigs. Not only does Yaupon have more caffeine than any other species in North America it also is high in antioxidants. A 2009 article in the Journal of Economic Botany recommended it become a commercial crop. Not surprising, a 1919 journal article recommended it as well. Spanish colonists in early Florida drank Yaupon tea. One priest in 1615 wrote: “There is no Spaniard or Indian who does not drink it every day in the morning or evening.” They called it “Indian Tea” or Cacina (the latter a name that confounded botanists for a few centuries.) In the 1700s English settlers in the Carolinas drank the “Indian tea” daily. It was very popular in the second half of the 1800s but fell out of favor. Scholars don’t know why but one would think the proliferation of coffee might of had something to do with it.
Left on its own the Yaupon Holly is a spindly understory tree, never growing much presence or height. The best examples of the species I know are cultivated ones in the landscaping of the Winter Park Library, in Winter Park, Florida. It’s easy to miss the native tree in the forest. However, two of its cultivars are very well known.
Ilex vomitoria var. nana
If nature makes a slight variation in a species it is called a variety. If man makes a variety it is called a cultivar. Two cultivars of the Ilex vomitoria are quite common. The most common is Ilex nana, or Ilex vomitoria var. nana. It is the ubiquitous hedge plant of the south. In fact there are some 17 different varieties of it. Thus finding a caffeine substitute is not difficult at all. The only question is how wholesome is the water and the environment where the hedge is located.
Ilex vomitoria var. pendula
The second cultivar is more dramatic, the Weeping Holly, or Ilex vomitoria var. pendula. It makes a very attractive statement in landscaping growing into a mid-sized tree with red berries (not edible.) Sometimes it is also trimmed to look like an upside down bowl. Researchers report that under controlled agricultural conditions the pendula variation produced the most caffeine of all. The amount of caffeine in the “vomitorias” varies depending upon how much nitrogen they are fed. More nitrogen, more caffeine.
Many years ago in the Orlando Public Library I found a crumbling book written Dr. William A. Morrill. a plant PhD. He wrote in 1940 the best Yaupon “tea” was made by using an equal mix of chopped brown dry roasted leaves and chopped steamed green leaves. While Yaupon Holly tea does have a caffeine it is practically free of tannin, which reduces bitterness considerably.
The odd finding, according to the researchers however, was the presence of anti-oxidants in the leaves. This was influenced by sunlight. The more sunlight the plant received the more anti-oxidants, or perhaps said correctly, the less shade the more anti-oxidants. While the researchers said more testing was needed it would appear that an Ilex vomitoria var. pendula grown in full sun and fed a high-nitrogen fertilizer would produce the maximum amount of caffeine and anti-oxidants. They recommended it become a commercial crop.
Last edited:
