Yaupon

Common associated trees are bluejack oak (Quercus incana) and post oak (Q. stellata), with a characteristic understory of Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) and flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).

Piney Woods forests 2008

Yaupon, which grows on the sandy wastes of North Carolina, was a very popular substitute for tea during the Civil War and even now holds great possibilities as a beverage for soda fountains.

Drummond's Pictorial Atlas of North Carolina. Albert Y. Drummond 1924

The Yaupon is sometimes referred to as I. vomitoria.

Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural. Being also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States; with Practical Information on the Useful Properties of the Trees, Plants, and Shrubs 1863

Yaupon; cassina; emetic-holly; grows near the seacoast; Newbern.

Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural. Being also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States; with Practical Information on the Useful Properties of the Trees, Plants, and Shrubs 1863

"As for purgings and emetics they never apply themselves to, unless in drinking vast quantities of their Yaupon or tea, and vomiting it up again, as clear as they drink it."

Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural. Being also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States; with Practical Information on the Useful Properties of the Trees, Plants, and Shrubs 1863

"This plant (the Yaupon, called by the South Carolina Indians Cassina), is the Indian tea, used and approved by all the savages on the coast of Carolina, and from them sent to the westward Indians, and sold at a considerable price."

Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural. Being also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States; with Practical Information on the Useful Properties of the Trees, Plants, and Shrubs 1863

The leaves of the Yaupon makes a pleasant tea, and when freely used, produces a copious and easy flow of urine and is a most valuable article in the cure of dropsy and gravelly complaints.

The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy, With General Rules for Preserving Health without the Use of Medicines. The Diseases of the U. States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, and Means of Prevention, are Treated on in a Satisfactory Manner. It Also Contains a Description of a Variety of Herbs and Roots, Many of which are not Explained in Any Other Book, and their Medical Virtues have Hitherto been Unknown to the Whites; To which is Added a Short Dispensatory. Richard Foreman 1849

The Yaupon tea is as grateful to the taste as the Bohea tea, if not more so, and may be cured and preserved for use a great while, and is quite a convenient article of transportation.

The Cherokee Physician, or Indian Guide to Health, as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy, With General Rules for Preserving Health without the Use of Medicines. The Diseases of the U. States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, and Means of Prevention, are Treated on in a Satisfactory Manner. It Also Contains a Description of a Variety of Herbs and Roots, Many of which are not Explained in Any Other Book, and their Medical Virtues have Hitherto been Unknown to the Whites; To which is Added a Short Dispensatory. Richard Foreman 1849

Others take it, after it is bruis'd, and put it into a Bowl, to which they put live Coals, and cover them with the Yaupon, till they have done smoaking, often turning them over.

A New Voyage to Carolina; Containing the Exact Description and Natural History of That Country: Together with the Present State Thereof. And A Journal of a Thousand Miles, Travel'd Thro' Several Nations of Indians. Giving a Particular Account of Their Customs, Manners, &c. 1709

I have transplanted the Sand-Bank and dwarfish Yaupon, and find that the first Year, the Shrubs stood at a stand; but the second Year they throve as well as in their native Soil.

A New Voyage to Carolina; Containing the Exact Description and Natural History of That Country: Together with the Present State Thereof. And A Journal of a Thousand Miles, Travel'd Thro' Several Nations of Indians. Giving a Particular Account of Their Customs, Manners, &c. 1709