Ilex asprella (Hook. & Arn.) Champ. ex Benth.

Shrubs deciduous, ca. 3 m tall. Branchlets castaneous, slender, glabrous; lenticels light colored; spur branchlets rugose, with persistent scales and leaf scars. Stipules persistent, deltoid, minute; petiole 3-8 mm, abaxially subrounded, glabrous, adaxially sulcate; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, ovate or ovate-elliptic, (3-)4-6(-8) × (1.5-)2-3.5 cm, membranous, abaxially glabrous, adaxially puberulent, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, raised abaxially, flat adaxially, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins evident on both surfaces, base obtuse to subrounded, margin serrate, apex caudate-acuminate, acumen (3-)6-10(-15) mm. Male inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary or fasciculate, fascicles 2-5-flowered, axillary on leaves or scales; pedicels 4-6(-9) mm; flowers white, 4- or 5-merous; calyx patelliform, 2.5-3 mm in diam., glabrous, 4- or 5-lobed, lobes broadly deltoid or orbicular, margin erose, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 6 mm in diam., petals suborbicular, ca. 2 mm in diam., basally slightly connate, rarely ciliate; stamens ca. 3/4 as long as petals, filaments ca. 1.5 mm, anthers oblong, ca. 1 mm; rudimentary ovary pulvinate, rostellate. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary, axillary on leaves or scales; pedicels 1-2 cm, glabrous; flowers 4-6-merous; calyx deeply 4-6-lobed, ca. 3 mm in diam., lobes ciliate; corolla rotate, petals suborbicular, ca. 2 mm in diam., basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. 1 mm, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., style present, stigma thickly discoid. Fruit black, globose or ellipsoidal, 5-7(-8) mm in diam., longitudinally striate and sulcate; fruiting pedicel 2-3 cm; persistent calyx explanate, lobes ciliate; persistent stigma capitate or thickly discoid, style evident; pyrenes 4-6, obovoid-ellipsoidal, ca. 5(or 8) mm, ca. 2(or 3) mm in diam., abaxially 3-striate and sulcate, laterally striate, nearly smooth or sulcate, adaxial keel sharp, endocarp stony. Fl. Mar, fr. Apr-Oct.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Philippines, ?Vietnam].

Sparse forests on slopes, shrubby areas, roadsides; 400-1000 m.