Ilex cinerea Champ. ex Benth.

Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 3-6 m tall. Branchlets brown or gray, straight, longitudinally angular and sulcate; leaf scars semicircular, slightly raised, lenticels absent; current year’s branchlets minutely pubescent when young; terminal buds conical, ca. 3 mm, bud scales pubescent. Petiole 2-4 mm, minutely pubescent and rugose; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, oblong-oblanceolate, 7-15 × 2-4 cm, leathery, adaxially glabrous except on midvein, midvein impressed and pubescent adaxially, lateral veins 9-11 pairs, raised abaxially, obscure adaxially, reticulate veins evident abaxially, base obtuse or rounded, margin crenulate or serrate, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; flowers yellowish green, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: 3-9-flowered cymes, pubescent; bracts deltoid-ovate, apex with stipulelike appendages; peduncle 1-2 mm; secondary axis ca. 1 mm; pedicels 3-4 mm; bracteoles 2, subbasal, lanceolate, membranous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes suborbicular, sparsely pubescent and ciliate; corolla ca. 7 mm in diam., petals 4, oblong, ca. 3 × 2.3 mm, basally slightly connate, apex ciliate. Stamens 4, ca. as long as or shorter than petals; anthers ovoid-oblong; rudimentary ovary globose, ca. 1 mm in diam., glabrous. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; bracts suborbicular; pedicels 2-3 mm; bracteoles ciliate; calyx subcupulate, ca. 2 mm in diam., pubescent, shallowly 4-lobed, lobes orbicular, ciliate; petals ca. 3 mm, nearly free at base; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary oblong-ellipsoidal, ca. 2 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., pubescent, apex truncate, stigma discoid. Fruit red, globose, ca. 7 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., lobes ciliate; persistent stigma discoid, 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, obovoid, ca. 4 mm, ca. 3 mm in diam., abaxially palmately longitudinally striate and sulcate, laterally rugose, endocarp stony. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. May-Oct.

Mountain forests; high elevations. Guangdong (Hebao Dao), Hainan, Hong Kong [Vietnam].

Ilex cinerea var. faberi Loesener.