Ilex serrata Thunb.

Shrubs deciduous, 1-3 m tall; bark gray. Current year’s branchlets longitudinally rugose and sulcate; second year’s branchlets subterete, hirsute or glabrescent; lenticels present. Petiole 6-8 mm, adaxially deeply sulcate, hirsute or glabrescent; leaf blade gray-olivaceous when dry, elliptic, rarely ovate or obovate-elliptic, 2-9 × 1-4 cm, membranous, both surfaces hirsute or glabrescent on veins, midvein raised on both surfaces, lateral veins 6-8 pairs, raised abaxially, obscure adaxially, reticulate veins evident on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin densely sharply serrate, apex acuminate. Male inflorescences: cymes or compound cymes, 9-21-flowered, solitary, axillary; peduncles ca. 3 mm; secondary axis ca. 1.5 mm; pedicels 2-2.5 mm, puberulent; bracteoles basal, deltoid; flowers 4- or 5-merous; calyx 1.5-2 mm in diam., lobes deltoid, hirsute, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 4.5 mm in diam., petals oblong, basally slightly connate, margin erose, not ciliate; stamens shorter than petals, anthers oblong; rudimentary ovary conical, glabrous, apex acute. Female inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered, solitary, rarely fasciculate, axillary; peduncles ca. 1.5 mm; pedicels 2-3 mm; flowers 4-6-merous; calyx as in male flowers; petals ovate, margin erose; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., stigma discoid. Fruit red, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 2-2.5 cm, hirsute; persistent calyx explanate, suborbicular, 5- or 6-lobed, lobes orbicular, hirsute, ciliate; persistent stigma discoid, shallowly 5- or 6-lobed; pyrenes 4 or 5, rarely 6, broadly ellipsoidal, 2-2.5 mm, 1-1.2 mm in diam., smooth, not striate, not sulcate, endocarp leathery. Fl. May, fr. Oct.

Fujian (Nanping), Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan].

Forest margins, shrub forests, mountain slopes; 500-1600 m.

Ilex serrata var. sieboldii (Miquel) Rehder; I. serrata f. subtilis (Miquel) Ohwi; I. serrata var. subtilis (Miquel) Loesener; I. sieboldii Miquel; I. sieboldii var. subtilis (Miquel) Yatabe; I. subtilis Miquel.

Ilex serrata is a species in the Ilex (holly) genus and the family Aquifoliaceae. It is an evergreen shrub or small tree up to about 4.5 m high. In Japan where it naturally occurs, it is a hardy species with ovate dark green leaves, pink flowers and red berries on the female plant.