15 Spineless Butcher's Broom seeds (Ruscus hypoglossum) Lónyelvű csodabogyó, Širokolisna veprina, Mouse thorn, Horse tongue lily, Israeli or Holland Ruscus.
Ruscus hypoglossum (Butcher's Broom) - Compact, evergreen sub-shrub with creeping rootstock to 18 inches tall and spreading slowly to make dense 3 to 4 foot wide clumps of 3-5 inch long cladodes (modified stems which take the place of true leaves) that taper at both end and are held at branch tips. Small yellow flowers form in the axil of the leaf that are followed by a red fruit on female plants of this dioecious species. Fruit is a rarely produced red globose berry 0.5 to 1.3 cm wide.
Plant in morning sun or bright to deep shade and water only occasionally to regularly. It is hardy to 5-10° F and useful in USDA zones 7b and above. Resistant to deer predation. This is a great tall groundcover for under trees, because it is an attractive yet tough shade-loving plant that is not invasive and is drought tolerant in our mediterranean climate. Ruscus hypoglossum grows in the forest understories from central and south eastern Europe from areas in Italy, the Danube Region into Asiatic Turkey and possibly south to Iran. The name for the genus comes from an old Latin name for prickly plants, and while some species are prickly, this one is not. The specific epithet is from the Greek words 'hypo' meaning "under" and 'glossa') meaning "tongue" which combined mean "below-a-tongue" or "sheathed beneath" in reference to the cladodes that extend beneath the flowers.