青茶香 qing cha xiang

Ilex buxifolia Hance, J. Bot. 14: 364. 1876, not Gardner (1845).

Shrubs or trees, evergreen, 2-10 m tall. Young branchlets slender, longitudinally angular and sulcate, puberulent; older branchlets with raised, crescent-shaped leaf scars, lenticels absent; terminal buds conical, puberulent. Stipules persistent, deltoid, apically acute; petiole 2-5 mm, puberulent, sulcate or flat adaxially; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, slightly shiny, obovate or obovate-oblong, 2.5-3.5 × 1-2 cm, thickly leathery, both surfaces glabrous except on midvein adaxially, midvein flat or slightly impressed adaxially, lateral veins 7 or 8 pairs and reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base obtuse or cuneate, margin entire, apex shortly acuminate, obtuse, or rounded, sometimes retuse. Inflorescences: cymes, solitary or fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets, puberulent, bracts deltoid, puberulent. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 2- or 3-flowered, fasciculate; peduncles 1-2 mm; pedicels 1-1.5 mm; bracteoles 1 or 2, basal; flowers white, 4-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., pubescent, shallowly 4-lobed, lobes orbicular, ciliate; corolla ca. 3 mm in diam., petals ovate, basally slightly connate; stamens shorter than petals; rudimentary ovary conical, center depressed. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary; pedicels ca. 1.5 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 2, basal, lanceolate; calyx and corolla as in male flowers; staminodes ca. 3/4 as long as petals, sterile anthers cordate; ovary subglobose-ovoid, ca. 1.3 mm in diam., stigma broadly discoid. Fruit red, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel ca. 2.5 mm, puberulent; persistent calyx explanate, quadrangular, 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, ciliate; persistent stigma thinly discoid, shallowly 4- or 5-lobed; pyrenes 4, broadly ellipsoidal or ovoid-ellipsoidal, ca. 4 mm, ca. 3 mm in diam., abaxially longitudinally raised and furcate-striate, laterally smooth, endocarp leathery. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul-Dec.

● Shrub forests, mountain slopes; 900-1800 m. SW Fujian (Shanghang), Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan (Ledong), Hunan.