绿叶冬青 lü ye dong qing

Ilex triflora Blume var. viridis (Champion ex Bentham) Loesener.

Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 1-5 m tall. Young branchlets subquadrangular, longitudinally angular and sulcate, pubescent along groove, glabrous along angles; older branchlets subterete, with ridges and oblong or elliptic lenticels; terminal buds conical, glabrous, apically acute. Petiole 4-6 mm, shallowly sulcate, abaxially rugose, adaxially puberulent or glabrous, narrowly winged by decurrent leaf base; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, shiny, obovate, obovate-elliptic, or broadly elliptic, 2.5-7 × 1.5-3 cm, leathery, abaxially conspicuously dark punctate, midvein deeply sulcate and sparsely pubescent adaxially, lateral veins 5-8 pairs, distinct on both surfaces, reticulate veins obscure abaxially, slightly raised adaxially, base obtuse or cuneate, margin slightly recurved, crenate-serrate, apex obtuse, acute, or shortly acuminate. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1-3, 1-5-flowered, solitary, axillary on scales or lower leaves of current year’s branchlets, or fasciculate on second year’s branchlets; peduncles 3-5 mm; pedicels ca. 2 mm; bracteoles 1 or 2, basal or submedian, subulate; flowers white, 4-merous; calyx patelliform, 2-3 mm in diam., lobes broadly deltoid, margin erose, not ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 7 mm in diam., petals obovate or orbicular, ca. 2.5 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens 4, ca. 2/3 as long as petals, anthers oblong; rudimentary ovary narrowly conical, rostellate. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary, axillary on current year’s branchlets; pedicels 1-1.5 cm, glabrous, gradually enlarged toward distal half; bracteoles 2, median, subulate; calyx 4-5 mm in diam., glabrous, 4-lobed, lobes suborbicular; petals 4, ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. 1/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm in diam., stigma discoid, convex. Fruit black, globose or slightly depressed globose, 9-11 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 1-1.7 cm; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 5 mm in diam.; persistent stigma discoid-mammilliform, 1.5-2 mm in diam.; pyrenes 4, ellipsoidal, cross section trigonous, 4-6 mm, 3-5 mm in diam., abaxially convex, striate, slightly rugose, laterally smooth, endocarp leathery. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Oct.

● Understories of evergreen broad-leaved forests, sparse forests and thickets on mountains; 300-1700(-2100) m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.