If you thought the eruptions of red berries this time of year in Southern California’s wild country were holly, you’re not alone. They are thought to be the reason the world’s movie-making capital was named Hollywoodland, later shortened to Hollywood.

The berries are really a product of toyon, a native shrub that also goes by the name “Christmas berry” because of the time of year when it fruits. Many wild creatures consume Christmas berries, blissfully unaffected by a danger lurking inside: cyanide.

Toyon belongs to the rose family, its members known by their five-petaled flowers (flower-shop roses are mutants, bred to produce more petals).

Other family members might be surprising: cherries, plums, apricots, nectarines and apples. And all have cyanide in common; it is found in the tough seed inside the fruit.

The cyanide is in a part of the fruit we don’t eat. But it might pose a hazard to animals dining on toyon if those seed coats weren’t so tough.

Luckily for the birds, coyotes, rodents and other creatures that eat Christmas berry, the seeds pass right through them, likely weakening the seed coat just enough to help the seed germinate but not enough to release the cyanide.
Toyon berries come in red, orange or yellow, and can be seen in places like Whiting Ranch, Riley and Caspers wilderness parks.

Scientific name: Heteromeles arbutifolia

Source: Biology professor Bob Allen, Irvine Valley College and Santa Ana College.

Next week: Lumpy crab

Photo by: Paul Bersebach, the Orange County Register

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