Ilex tutcheri Merr.

Trees small or shrubs, evergreen, ca. 4 m tall. Branchlets yellow-brown or castaneous, terete, glabrous; current year’s branchlets longitudinally angular-sulcate; third year’s branchlets smooth; lenticels absent; leaf scars raised, deltoid; terminal buds ovoid, scales sparse, glabrous. Stipules persistent, deltoid, ca. 1 mm, apically acuminate; petiole 4-8 mm, abaxially rounded and rugose, adaxially deeply sulcate, narrowly winged on distal half; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, shiny, obcordate, obovate, or rarely obovate-elliptic, 2.7-6 × 1.3-2.5 cm, thickly leathery, abaxially punctate, both surfaces glabrous, midvein abaxially raised, glabrous, adaxially deeply impressed, very sparsely puberulent, lateral and reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base cuneate or acute, margin recurved, entire, apex rounded and retuse, rarely obtuse. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second to third year’s branchlets. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered; basal bracts tricuspidate, puberulent; peduncles 2-3 mm, sparsely puberulent; pedicels 3-4 mm; bracteoles absent, or 1 or 2, basal, deltoid, puberulent; calyx patelliform, ca. 3 mm in diam., puberulent, 5-7-lobed, lobes orbicular, sparsely ciliate or not ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 7 mm in diam., petals 4 or 5, oblong, ca. 2.5 mm, not ciliate, basally slightly connate; stamens nearly as long as petals, anthers oblong-ovoid; rudimentary ovary globose, middle distinctly 4- or 5-lobed, apex papillose. Female flowers not known. Infructescences: 1-fruited cymes; fruiting pedicels 8-10 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 1 or 2, basal. Fruit red, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, suborbicular, ca. 4 mm in diam.; persistent stigma capitate; pyrenes 5 or 6(or 7), ellipsoidal, 2-3 mm, 1-1.3 mm in diam., abaxially 2- or 3-striate, laterally smooth, endocarp leathery. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul-Dec.

Guangdong, Guangxi.

● Forests, mountain slopes; 400-1600 m.