Ilex chapaensis Merr.

Trees deciduous, 9-16 m tall. Branchlets castaneous, minutely sparsely puberulent or glabrescent, with numerous conspicuous lenticels and raised leaf scars; spur branchlets 3-5 mm, with scales and raised leaf scars. Stipules persistent, deltoid, minute; petiole 1.2-3 cm, adaxially deeply and narrowly sulcate, distal ends narrowly winged by decurrent leaf base, glabrous; leaf blade brown-olivaceous when dry, ovate-elliptic or oblong-elliptic to elliptic, 5-11 × 3-3.5 cm, papery or thinly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, rarely puberulent on both surfaces when young, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 8-10 pairs, raised abaxially, slightly impressed or flat adaxially, glabrous, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins evident abaxially, base obtuse or acute, rarely rounded, margin crenulate-serrulate, apex shortly acuminate or obtuse, rarely rounded. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1-3, 1-5-flowered, pseudofasciculate; peduncles 1-2 mm; pedicels 2-4 mm; 1-flowered pedicels ca. 3 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 2, basal; flowers 6-8-merous; calyx ca. 4 mm in diam., glabrous or puberulent, 6-8-lobed, lobes orbicular, ciliate; petals obovate-oblong, 4-5 mm, basally slightly connate, ciliate; stamens ca. as long as petals, anthers ovoid-oblong; rudimentary ovary conical, rostellate, apex shallowly lobed. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary, axillary at scales of spur branchlets, rarely at leaf axis; pedicels 6-10 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 2, basal; calyx 6- or 7-lobed, as in male flowers; corolla suberect, ca. 8 mm in diam., petals ca. 4 mm; staminodes ca. 2/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, style present, puberulent, stigma capitate, ca. 2 mm, conspicuously lobed. Fruit green when mature (black when drying), globose, 1.2-2 cm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate; persistent stigma columnar; pyrenes 6 or 7, oblong, ca. 1.3 cm, ca. 4 mm in diam., abaxially 3-striate, 2-sulcate, laterally 1- or 2-striate and sulcate, endocarp bony. Fl. Apr, fr. Oct-Nov.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, SE Yunnan [N Vietnam].

Sparse forests, mixed forests on mountains; 500-3000 m.

Ilex howii Merrill & Chun; I. megistocarpa Merrill.

Ilex chapaensis is a species of holly native to China. It is a deciduous shrub. The fruits are black when mature. The fruits are drupes which are eaten by civets that disperse the seeds through their droppings. It is grown as an ornamental plant.