Ilex cyrtura Merr.

Trees evergreen, ca. 12 m tall. Current year’s branchlets slender, longitudinally angular and sulcate, glabrous or sparsely pubescent along groove; second year’s branchlets smooth, glabrous; leaf scars crescent-shaped; lenticels absent. Petiole 7-12 mm, adaxially narrowly sulcate, puberulent, distal half narrowly winged by decurrent leaf base; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 6-11 × 2-4 cm, subleathery, abaxially glabrous, adaxially glabrous except on midvein, midvein impressed, sparsely puberulent adaxially, lateral veins 7 or 8 pairs, conspicuous abaxially, obscure adaxially, reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base obtuse or cuneate, margin shallowly serrate, teeth black, apex long and often falcate-caudate, acumen 1.5-2 cm. Inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate, axillary on current year’s branchlets, pubescent; bracts broadly elliptic, ciliate; flowers yellow, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: pedicels ca. 1 mm; bracteoles 2, subbasal, ovate, ca. 1 mm, ciliate; calyx patelliform, glabrous, deeply 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 6 mm in diam., petals oblong, ca. 3 mm, sparsely ciliate, basally slightly connate; stamens ca. as long as petals, anthers oblong; rudimentary ovary subovoid, apex obtuse. Female inflorescences: pedicels ca. 4 mm, pubescent; bracteoles 2, submedian, ciliate; calyx as in male flowers; corolla ca. 5 mm in diam., petals ovate-oblong, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, ca. 1 mm in diam., stigma very convex, 4-lobed. Fruit globose, ca. 6 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 5-6 mm; persistent calyx explanate, quadrangular, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., ciliate; persistent stigma thinly discoid; pyrenes 4, ellipsoidal, ca. 3.5 mm, 2.5-3 mm in diam., abaxially palmately striate, nearly not sulcate, endocarp woody. Fl. Apr, fr. Jun-Sep.

Guangdong (Conghua), Guangxi, Guizhou (Suiyang, Xifeng), NW Yunnan (Gongshan) [Bhutan, N Myanmar].

Broad-leaved mountain forests; 700-1800 m.