Ilex lonicerifolia Hayata

Trees evergreen, small to middle-sized, to 17 m tall. Young branchlets castaneous when dry, terete or ridged, longitudinally sulcate, densely pubescent or glabrous; older branchlets sparsely fissured; leaf scars subcircular-deltoid, sparsely lenticellate; terminal buds conical, densely ferruginous pubescent. Stipules triangular, minute; petiole 4-15 mm, pubescent or slightly hirsute, adaxially shallowly sulcate; leaf blade castaneous when dry, opaque on both surfaces, oblong or oblong-elliptic, rarely ovate-elliptic, 4-11 × 2-4.5 cm, thinly leathery, midvein flat or slightly impressed, hirsute adaxially, lateral veins 10-12 pairs, raised on both surfaces, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins obscure abaxially, evident adaxially, base obtuse, rarely rounded, margin entire, recurved, apex shortly acuminate, acute, or obtuse. Male flowers not known. Female inflorescences: cymes of order 2-4, umbelliform, 3-11-flowered, solitary, axillary on current year’s branchlets, hirsute; peduncles 1-2 cm, bracts below umbel, bristlelike, ca. 1 mm, pubescent; pedicels 4-6 mm; bracteoles basal, 1 or 2, or absent; flowers 5- or 6-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 3.5 mm in diam., pubescent, lobes deltoid, apex obtuse, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 7 mm in diam., petals ovate-oblong, 2.5-3 mm, basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. 3/4 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, stigma thickly discoid or mammilliform, shallowly 5- or 6-lobed. Fruit red, ovoid-globose and 5-7 mm in diam., or ellipsoidal and 8-10 × 6-8 mm; persistent stigma mammilliform; pyrenes 4-6, ellipsoidal, ca. 5 mm, ca. 2 mm in diam., abaxially shallowly concave, smooth, endocarp leathery. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Jul.

● Mountain and evergreen forests; low to middle elevations. Taiwan.