Ilex formosana Maxim.

Shrubs or trees, evergreen, 8-15 m tall; bark gray-brown, smooth. Young branchlets gray-white or gray-brown when dry, terete, longitudinally angular and sulcate, glabrous or slightly puberulent; second to third year’s branchlets thinly fissured; leaf scars semicircular; lenticels absent; terminal buds conical, buds scales ovate-deltoid, firm, margin serrate, ciliate, puberulent. Stipules deltoid, minute; petiole 5-13 mm, abaxially raised and rugose, adaxially broadly sulcate or flattened, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, slightly shiny, gray-olivaceous when dry, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or oblong-lanceolate, rarely oblanceolate, (3.5-)6-10 × (1.5-)2-3.5 cm, leathery or subleathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 6-8 pairs, evident abaxially, obscure adaxially, reticulate veins often evident abaxially, obscure adaxially, base cuneate, rarely obtuse, margin sparsely crenulate-serrate, or rarely only undulate, apex acuminate to caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences: cymes, pseudopaniculate, fasciculate, or pseudoracemose, axillary on second year’s branchlets. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered, paniculate or fasciculate; rachis 5-10 mm, puberulent; persistent bud scales basal, ovate-deltoid, ca. 1 × 1.5 mm, shiny, glabrous, apex acute; peduncles ca. 1 mm, puberulent; basal bract 1, 1.5-2 mm, pubescent, ciliate; pedicels 3-4 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 2, basal; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm, puberulent, 4-lobed, lobes broadly deltoid, apex rounded, rarely obtuse, ciliate; corolla ca. 6 mm in diam., petals oblong, ca. 3 × 1.5 mm, apex rounded, ciliate; stamens ca. as long as petals, anthers oblong; rudimentary ovary globose, ca. 1 mm in diam. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate or pseudoracemose; rachis 4-6 mm, nearly glabrous, bud scales as in male flowers; pedicels ca. 3 mm, densely puberulent; bracteoles 2, submedian; calyx as in male flowers; petals free or connate at base, ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, ciliate; staminodes ca. 2/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers ovoid; ovary ovoid. Fruit red, globose or subglobose, 4-6 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel ca. 3 mm; persistent calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., lobes ciliate; persistent stigma capitate, 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, ovoid-oblong or oblong, 3-4 mm, 2-2.7 mm in diam., abaxially palmately striate and sulcate, center depressed, laterally longitudinally striate and deeply sulcate, endocarp stony. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Jul-Nov.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Philippines].

Forests, forest margins, shrubby areas, streamsides, mountains; sea level to 1500(-2100) m.