Nicole Font is the Shelby White & Leon Levy Processing Archivist at the New York Botanical Garden.

---

During the recent holiday season, various botanicals from poinsettias to mistletoe adorned homes, department stores, restaurants, and cultural institutions everywhere. Among the most iconic of these plants is holly, a genus deeply rooted in pagan winter solstice traditions and long regarded as a symbol of protection and eternal life. But did you know that holly was once at risk of becoming endangered?

I didn’t know this until I began looking through the Wild Flower Preservation Society records, held in the archives of the New York Botanical Garden. The Wild Flower Preservation Society (WFPS) was established in 1925 as the successor to the Wild Flower Preservation Society of America, which was founded at the New York Botanical Garden in 1902. A nonprofit educational organization, its primary objective was to establish wild flower preserves, cultivate rare native plants, and foster appreciation for nature and conservation. The collection includes administrative records, publications, correspondence, reference files, and an extensive subject file—where I learned about the plight of the holly tree.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was concern that holly—particularly American holly (Ilex opaca)—could decline or even disappear due to overharvesting. Each holiday season, the sale of American holly generated significant profit, and harvesting often involved cutting entire branches. Around the holidays, berry-laden branches were removed in large quantities, leading to the destruction of many holly trees. One resource in the WFPS records even cited automobiles as a contributing factor in holly’s decline, noting that motorists would stop along the roadside to break off large branches rather than pay for them.

In 1925, bryologist and New York Botanical Garden co-founder Elizabeth Britton led a campaign against the harvesting of wild American holly. As chair of the Conservation Committee of the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State, she had long advocated for the protection of American wildflowers—a commitment that included helping to organize the first iteration of the Wild Flower Preservation Society of America. Britton wrote extensively on the subject, encouraging people to choose alternative plants for their holiday decorations. The WFPS similarly promoted the use of alternative plants and advocated saving holly berries for planting. Other actions promoted by various garden clubs included distributing literature to farm owners on the value of holly wreaths as a crop and discouraging the picking of wildflowers. My favorite form of holly advocacy, however, is the material created specifically for children, including a short poem I encountered in the WFPS subject files.

As a result of these campaigns, laws and local regulations protecting holly and other wild plants were encouraged. Britton’s work, in particular, contributed to garden club-led local conservation ordinances and increased state interest in regulating the harvesting of wild plants. Holly also benefited from the expansion of cultivated holly farms and nurseries, which helped reduce pressure on wild populations. Over time, the growing popularity of artificial decorations further lessened the demand for wild holly, allowing these plants to recover. Today, holly is no longer considered endangered. Thanks to this early advocacy work, we can continue to admire its beauty during the holiday season, and throughout the year.