Ilex graciliflora Champ. ex Benth.

Trees evergreen, 6-9 m tall. Young branchlets subterete, longitudinally ridged, slightly puberulent; second year’s branchlets glabrous, longitudinally fissured and plicate; third year’s branchlets castaneous, with flat, deltoid leaf scars. Leaves on first to third year’s branchlets; petiole 1-1.5 cm, linear-sulcate, glabrous or minutely puberulent, distal half winged by decurrent leaf base; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, shiny, obovate-elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 2-7.5 × 1.5-3.5 cm, thickly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, raised abaxially, obscure adaxially, reticulate veins loosely evident abaxially, base obtuse or acute, margin sparsely minutely serrate or subentire, apex retuse, rarely acute. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on current year’s branchlets; bracts ovate-deltoid, puberulent, apex acute or tricuspidate; flowers white, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered; peduncles 1-2 mm; pedicels 3-6 mm, both surfaces sparsely puberulent or glabrescent; bracteoles 1 or 2, basal or near base; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, apex obtuse or rounded, ciliate; petals 4, reflexed, oblong, ca. 2.5 mm, ciliate, basally connate; stamens 4, shorter than petals, anthers oblong-ovoid; rudimentary ovary subglobose-ovoid, apex obtuse, indistinctly 4-lobed. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; bracts ovate; pedicels ca. 4 mm; bracteoles 2, basal; calyx as in male flowers; petals free, oblong-obovate, ca. 2 mm; staminodes ca. 2/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary globose-ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., stigma discoid. Fruit red, globose, 5-6 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel ca. 6 mm; persistent calyx explanate, suborbicular, ca. 2 mm in diam.; persistent stigma thinly discoid, flat; pyrenes 4, subglobose, ca. 4 mm, ca. 3 mm in diam., rugose, irregularly reticulately striate and sulcate, abaxially shallowly depressed, endocarp woody. Fl. Apr, fr. Oct-Feb.

● Woods, thickets; low to middle elevations. Hong Kong (including Lantau Island).