Ilex austrosinensis C. J. Tseng

Trees or shrubs, evergreen, 3-12 m tall. Young branchlets brown, slender, striate, puberulent or glabrescent. Petiole 5-10 mm, adaxially sulcate, puberulent; leaf blade green or olivaceous when dry, oblong, elliptic-oblong, or ovate-elliptic, 5-10 × 2-4 cm, leathery or thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous except on midvein, midvein adaxially raised or subflat, or proximal half raised and gradually subflat upward, lateral veins 7-9 pairs, raised on both surfaces, reticulate veins evident abaxially, inconspicuous adaxially, base rounded or obtuse, margin sparsely serrulate or subentire, apex acuminate, acumen 6-10 mm. Inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered, fasciculate or pseudoracemose, axillary, puberulent. Male inflorescences: peduncles ca. 3 mm; bracts deltoid-ovate; pedicels 2-3 mm, with bracteoles below middle; flowers 4-merous; calyx cup-shaped, lobes ovate or suborbicular; petals oblong, ciliate, basally ca. 1/4 connate; stamens shorter than petals; rudimentary ovary tuberculate, apex 4-lobed. Female inflorescences: peduncles 1-2 mm; pedicels 3-4 mm; bracteoles basal, deltoid-ovate; flowers 4-merous; calyx cup-shaped, lobes broadly deltoid; petals deltoid-oblong, ca. 2 mm, puberulent, ciliate; staminodes ca. as long as or shorter than petals; ovary ovoid, tuberculate, stigma capitate, shallowly 4-lobed. Fruit (immature) ellipsoidal; persistent stigma thickly discoid or capitate. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul.

Guangdong (Gaoyao, Ruyuan), Guangxi (Shanglin, Wuming), Hainan (Baisha).

● Forests on mountain slopes; 800-1000 m.