Ilex confertiflora Merr.

Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 3-8 m tall. Young branchlets terete, stout, longitudinally angular and sulcate, glabrous; older branchlets longitudinally fissured, leaf scars semicircular, lenticels absent; terminal buds narrowly conical, puberulent, apically acute. Petiole 8-10 mm, abaxially transversely rugose, adaxially sulcate, glabrous; leaf blade adaxially yellowish, oblanceolate, elliptic, oblong, or obovate-oblong, 6-9(-13) × 3-4.2(-4.5) cm, thickly leathery, abaxially sparsely glandular punctate, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 6-8 pairs, raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, curved ascending, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins evident on both surfaces, base rounded, rarely obtuse, margin recurved, sparsely crenulate, teeth black and very short, apex abruptly shortly acuminate, acumen deltoid, 3-5 mm, or long acuminate. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; flowers yellowish, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered; peduncles ca. 1 mm; pedicels 1-2 mm, puberulent; bracts deltoid, puberulent, apex acute; calyx patelliform, 2-2.5 mm in diam., deeply 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, glabrous, apex obtuse, ciliate; corolla ca. 7 mm in diam., petals oblong, ca. 3 mm, apex ciliate; stamens ca. 1/3 as long as petals, anthers ovoid; rudimentary ovary subglobose, ca. 0.5 mm in diam., apex rounded. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; pedicels 1.5-2 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 2, submedian, ovate-deltoid, puberulent; calyx patelliform, puberulent, ciliate; petals free, elliptic, ca. 2.5 mm, ciliate; staminodes ca. 2/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., glabrous, stigma reflexed, thickly discoid, convex. Fruit red, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 1-2 mm, puberulent; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 2 mm, 4-lobed, lobes suborbicular; persistent stigma thickly discoid; pyrenes 4, oblong, 3.5-4 mm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., abaxially broadly depressed, palmately striate and sulcate, laterally coarse and rugose, endocarp stony. Fl. Apr, fr. May-Sep(-Oct).

Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan.

● Forests, forest margins, mountain slopes; 700-1200 m.