Petit houx

The French name, meaning little holly (an old English name was 'knee-holly') is more appropriate to this time of year than the common English name Butcher's Broom, which arose because bundles of the stems were once used to scour butchers' blocks. In his magisterial Flora Britannica Richard Mabey notes 17th century references to miniature hedges made of the branches and placed around meat to keep mice at bay.  If you speak Botany it's Ruscus aculeatus .  

We've been out gathering an armful for the house, and it's then that you notice the preference of this plant for the shade, but that it produces berries only in part-sun. It's unusual in that the 'leaves' are in fact flattened stems called cladodes, and the flowers and then the berries are borne in the middle of them.  You wouldn't think it, but it's quite closely related to asparagus.

Anyway, all that's a preamble to wishing all who read this 'Bonnes Fêtes!'