Ilex retusifolia S. Y. Hu

Shrubs evergreen. Branchlets castaneous when dry, terete, slender, puberulent, older ones with elliptic lenticels; terminal buds ovoid-conical, puberulent. Stipules persistent, deltoid, apically acute; petiole 8-12 mm, abaxially rounded and rugose, adaxially puberulent, broadly and shallowly sulcate; leaf blade brown-olivaceous when dry, broadly elliptic, 5-7 × 2-3 cm, leathery, abaxially punctate, glabrous except on midvein, midvein raised on both surfaces, lateral veins 7-9 pairs, and reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base obtuse, margin entire, apex shortly acuminate, acumen retuse. Male flowers not known. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; bracts broadly deltoid, puberulent, tricuspidate; pedicels 4-5 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 2, subbasal, deltoid, puberulent; flowers yellowish, 4-merous, rarely 5-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., puberulent, deeply 4-lobed, lobes obtuse, apex retuse or rounded, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 5 mm in diam., petals free, ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, not ciliate; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers ovoid-cordate, glabrous; ovary ovoid-subglobose, ca. 1 mm in diam., style evident, very short, stigma discoid. Fruit not known. Fl. Jun, fr. unknown.

S Guangxi (Xing’an).

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests, mountains; 500-2000 m.