Sure looks like it! Where is this growing? I have opacas come up all over my beds and remove them, but they grow wild in woods.

Hi - I'm located on Long Island, NY. This just popped up amongst several China Girl Holly and I'm thinking about moving it to a better environment. In the nurseries around here, they're very expensive shrubs. Thank you

I think I. opaca is expensive because it grows more slowly than many of the commercial holly hybrids. Not a whole lot of demand for them, except maybe for some of the noted cultivars of opaca, like 'Satyr Hill', which has larger glossier leaves, is female and bears lots of beautiful red berries.

I think you're right and that makes perfect sense. The reason I'm prepared to rescue this is because it's one of the more deer resistant holly varieties. They seem to be feasting on my China Girl Holly despite it being categorized as "deer resistant". Thank you for the response.