Ilex hylonoma Hu & T. Tang

Trees evergreen, to 10 m tall. Branchlets castaneous, straight, glabrescent or glabrous; terminal buds conical, slender, glabrous, apically acute, with ciliate bud scales. Leaves on first and second year’s branchlets; stipules deltoid, minute, ca. 1 mm, apically acute; petiole 8-14 mm, abaxially rugose, adaxially sulcate and minutely pubescent or glabrous; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, elliptic, oblong-elliptic, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, 6-12.5 × (1.8-)2.4-4.5 cm, thinly to thickly leathery, midvein adaxially impressed, pilose, glabrescent, or glabrous, lateral veins 9 pairs, raised and prominent abaxially, obscurely impressed adaxially, branched and anastomosing near margin, reticulate veinlets rather obscure abaxially, evident adaxially, base obtuse or acute, rarely cuneate, margin coarsely and sharply serrate, sometimes teeth ending in weak spines, apex shortly acuminate. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered, sparsely pubescent; peduncles ca. 1 mm; bracts deltoid, glabrous and ciliate, apex acute; pedicel ca. 3 mm; bracteoles 2, basal, ciliate; flowers 4-merous, yellowish; calyx ca. 1.8 mm in diam., glabrous, lobes broadly deltoid, ca. 0.5 × 0.5-1 mm, ciliate, apex obtuse; corolla rotate, petals obovate-elliptic, 3.3-3.5 × ca. 1.8 mm, basally connate; stamens slightly longer than petals, anthers ovoid; rudimentary ovary subglobose. Female flowers not known. Infructescences: 1-fruited cymes, few fascicled; fruiting pedicels ca. 2 mm; bracteoles 2, subbasal. Fruit brown, ellipsoid-subglobose, 0.8-1.2 cm in diam., quite rugose when dry; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 3 mm in diam.; persistent stigma prominent, thickly discoid or nearly mammilliform; pyrenes 4, obovoid or oblong, trigonous in cross section, apical end obliquely retuse, 7-9 mm, 3-4 mm in diam., abaxially irregularly rugose and pitted, with a median longitudinal ridge, endocarp bony. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Jul-Nov.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Zhejiang.

● Forests, hills; 300-1800 m.