I found these hollies growing in Falls Church, VA, that I cannot indentify.

I'll attach several photos of the small trees as well as closeups. I would say over half the leaves on the tree are completely spineless and the remainder of them have anywhere from 1 to a half dozen very minor spines. The leaves are anywhere from 1.5" to 3" long and maybe 1/2 as wide. Shape is elliptical.

Tree form is a rather open pyramid - though they have likely never been sheared. Looks like they have been limbed up though. This area is quite dry and they get no supplemental water that I can see. They've been there for years.

Really the greatest features of these hollies are the mostly spineless leaves with a nice color, good berry production and smaller size.

My first inclination was that these might be an Ilex x attenuata cultivar -- something with I. cassine and I. opaca. (Or maybe pure cassine?) Possibly one of of the Hume cultivars like Hume #2, but I've never seen them in person as they seem to be very rarely sold in commerce -- especially around here. The written descriptions sound very close though.

Any ideas? They would make a wonderful small tree for the urban garden because of their smaller size -- nothing like I. opaca. And very few spines, so a very friendly holly -- plus the nice show of berries.

I'll follow up with more pics.

This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Tue, Oct 22, 13 at 10:22