The Living Forest (176) : Holly
The Holly is a shiny evergreen tree, native to western and southern Europe.
It likes to grow in shady areas of oak and beech forests.
Holly is also widely cultivated as an ornamental garden shrub with several cultivars selected for variation in leaf colour, but this one here is a wild specimen growing in an old forest.
The bright red Holly berries are a very important source of food for birds, during winter when food is scarce.
Those berries are (light) toxic to humans, but are not harmful to birds.
Dutch name : Hulst
German name : Stechpalme
Latin name : Ilex aquifolium
Pascal Viyer 28/02/2012 4:21
I love that Xmas look !amitié
p^v
qRudi 24/02/2012 2:12
Winter dromen.Canan Oner 22/02/2012 13:34
Even under snow , those berries look so inviting :-))A real beauty Mark...Reminds me of Christmas...
Cheers,
Canan
Heinz Janovsky 22/02/2012 8:03
Sehr schöne Farbkombination.Gruß Heinz
TeresaM 22/02/2012 7:06
Excellent !Une présentation qui me plait beaucoup.
Bonne journée :-)
K.-H.Schulz 22/02/2012 5:41
Eine sehr gelungene Aufnahme im Schnee mit FarbtupferLG:karl-Heinz
willy ombret 22/02/2012 0:08
un très beau shoot hivernalphoto très bien composée
willy ombret
Brigitte Hoffmann 21/02/2012 23:32
Roter Hingucker mit frischem Grün und Schnee.-Dein Foto ist wunderbar, Mark!
Salut Brigitte
sailor466 21/02/2012 21:43
hallo - wunderbar aufgenommen diese winterliche stimmung mit den sehr schönen farbtupfern!!m.l.g. dieter
Lawson McCulloch 21/02/2012 21:37
The red berries look great in this fine winter shot.best wishes from Lawson.
Adele D. Oliver 21/02/2012 21:02
This looks so lovely with the bright red and green and the white snow and photographed in the natural forest .... over here a symbol of Christmas, and VanDusen Gardens has many of the cultivars....greetings, Adele
Vitória Castelo Santos 21/02/2012 20:03
!! WONDERFUL !!Vera M. Shulga 21/02/2012 20:00
Very beautiful colorful image!..Northbound 21/02/2012 18:47
Fine composition with just enough snow to bring out the holly. A plant I have given up about from the day I noticed the moose had a knack for chewing it down into insignificance when they happen to trample by. Not that I blame the moose for it...Bernd Brügging 21/02/2012 18:20
Sehr schön auch die Farben und die Schärfe, die sich hier eindrucksvoll darstellen.Klasse Winteraufnahme!
HG
Bernd