Ilex cauliflora H. W. Li ex Y. R. Li

Shrubs evergreen, ca. 5 m tall. Branchlets gray-brown, shiny, thick, glabrous; lenticels pale, circular, convex; leaf scars semicircular, convex; terminal buds narrowly conical, 8-10 mm, apex acuminate, bud scales ciliate. Stipules inconspicuous or caducous; petiole 1.5-2.4 cm, abaxially rugose, adaxially shallowly sulcate, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 6-9.5 × 2-4 cm, thinly leathery or thickly papery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein slightly impressed adaxially, lateral veins 8 or 9 pairs, furcate and anastomosing near margin, slightly raised on both surfaces, reticulate veins evident abaxially, obscure adaxially, base obtuse or subrounded, margin crenulate, apex long acuminate. Flowers not known. Infructescences 1-fruited cymes, fasciculate, fascicles 5-10-fruited, axillary on second year’s branchlets; axis ca. 2 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., black-brown, shiny, glabrous; fruiting pedicels ca. 4 mm, nearly glabrous; bracteoles basal, deltoid. Fruit (immature) globose, ca. 3 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes deltoid-suborbicular, glabrous, not ciliate; persistent stigma thickly discoid to capitate, shallowly 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, ellipsoidal, 2-2.5 mm, abaxially 4- or 5-striate, not sulcate, endocarp leathery. Fr. Feb-Mar.

SE Yunnan (Malipo).

● Shrub forests on mountains; 2000-2600 m.