Is American Holly deer resistant?

Spiny evergreen leaves deer will not chew. You need a male plant within range for the female to set berries, which is the detail most people miss when they buy one.

Do deer eat American holly?

Rarely. Rutgers rates Ilex opaca Rarely Damaged, A, and NC State says it twice, "highly deer resistant," which is stronger language than that entry uses for almost anything. The spined, leathery, evergreen leaf is the reason, and it is the difference between this holly and the Japanese holly sold as a boxwood substitute, whose small soft leaf is a tier below the middle. Among the evergreen screens deer leave alone, American holly is the one that becomes a tree.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 5a to 9b, 40 to 60 feet in time, full sun or partial shade, flowering April to June, and resisting salt, wind and storm damage as well as deer. It is "intolerant of limestone soils." The berries need two plants: NC State, "Only female trees produce fruits and they must have a nearby male pollinizer." The ASPCA lists holly as toxic to dogs, cats and horses; NC State puts the severity Low, the fruit the poisonous part, "nausea, vomiting (not in horses), diarrhea, depression," and the callout below carries it.

Protecting American holly

Nothing from deer at any age. A young holly is spined from its first leaf.

If it is browsed

It is not, in the ordinary run; a holly with a bare band at browse height in a hard winter regrows from the stems the following season, since hollies break new growth from old wood the way most broadleaf evergreens do and yew and arborvitae do not.