This is a photo of a sport of the native yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) I discovered while walking through the a National Scenic Area in east TX. Only a branch on a yaupon shrub growing in the wild displayed this variegation. Not having a means to keep cuttings alive and fresh for transport to Houston, I took a snippet and photographed it with the hope of returning to take cuttings for propagation. Almost a year later, I returned only to find the shrub missing or destroyed (there were infestations of pine bark beatle killing trees which had fallen in the area where the shrub had been. To date, a variegated cultivar of the yaupon holly has never been introduced into the nursery trade. This could have been the first.

 

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