December 2015: Twigs with bright red berries of the holly [Ilex aquifolium] (Stechpalme) are often used as decoration during Christmas time. In my region they get more and more common, they are abundant in forests on south facing slopes because of softer winters. The berries as well as the leaves are poisonous (lethal dose about 20 berries). Ilex is a dioecious plant, so the picture shows a female plant. In Central Europe we have only this 1 species, but in tropical and subtropical regions there are several hundred species. Yerba maté [Ilex paraguariensis, also I. paraguensis, I. paraguayensis] (Mate-Tee) is made of leaves of a certain Ilex - and hopefully not toxic...