FRiends... this statement from the article is pure 100% crap:
” led to its Latin name, Ilex vomitoria — a misnomer, because yaupon is not an emetic”
I can tell you with 100% certainty that it IS an EMETIC. We told the kids that it was at Scout Camp one summer... one of the problem kids, Will, just had to try it. He threw up everything but his toenails and I’m not really sure that was not included somewhere.
I don’t know where this author is getting information but it is wrong on this point.
We have the crap all over the place. It is true, it does love to suffer. It also burns EXPLOSIVELY! Do not allow it to grow up around your house. In the fires of 2011 here in SE Texas it was mostly responsible for the ladder fires and flames more than 100’ high. The first time I burned a pile of it I wished I had never set a match to it. It EXPLODED! Apparently it contains a lot of WAX of some sort.
The deer eat it when they are hard up but that is all I have ever seen give it a shot.
Living in TX, we grew up around yaupon Holly, and were always told it was poisonous to people and dogs. Also, it was known as a deer resistant plant for landscaping.
Wikipedia, of course.
The leaves (and I guess other parts of the plant) induce vomiting when eaten. Most sites say that the tea made from them doesn’t. But the Indians mixed in so many other ingredients that their tea did.