Ilex bioritsensis Hayata

Shrubs or trees, evergreen, 1.5-10 m tall. Branchlets gray-brown, subterete, sparsely puberulent or glabrescent, smooth, without lenticels; terminal buds conical, puberulent, apically acute, bud scales ciliate. Leaves on up to fourth year’s branches; petiole ca. 3 mm, pubescent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, shiny, ovate to rhombic, 2.5-5.5 × 1.5-2.5 cm, leathery, glabrous, midvein sulcate, puberulent adaxially, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, indistinct or slightly raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base rounded or truncate, margin sinuate, with 3 or 4 pairs of strong spines, apex acuminate, with spine ca. 3 mm. Inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; bracts ovate, ca. 1.75 mm, ciliate; flowers 4-merous, yellowish green. Male inflorescences: pedicels ca. 2 mm, glabrous; bracteoles 2, ovate; calyx patelliform, ca. 3 mm in diam., lobes broadly deltoid, ciliate; petals broadly elliptic, ca. 3 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens longer than petals, anthers oblong; rudimentary ovary ovoid, ca. 1 mm in diam. Female inflorescences: pedicels ca. 2 mm; bracteoles 2, subbasal, glabrous; calyx as in male flowers; petals free; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers cordate; ovary oblong-ovoid, 2-4 mm, stigma thinly discoid. Fruit red, ellipsoidal, 8-10 mm, ca. 7 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate; persistent stigma discoid; pyrenes 2, dorsiventrally compressed, ovoid or subglobose, 5-6 mm, 4-5 mm in diam., slightly convex, abaxially palmately striate and sulcate, adaxially striate, endocarp woody. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul-Oct.

Guizhou (Fanjing Shan), SW Hebei, SW Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, C Taiwan, N Yunnan.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests, thickets; 900-4000 m.

Ilex bioritsensis var. ovatifolia H. L. Li; I. diplosperma S. Y. Hu; I. pernyi Franchet f. veitchii (Rehder) Rehder; I. pernyi var. veitchii Rehder.