谷木叶冬青 gu mu ye dong qing

Ilex memecylifolia var. oblongifolia Champion ex Bentham.

Trees evergreen, 15-20 m tall, rarely shrubs, ca. 2 m tall. Young branchlets slender, longitudinally angular and sulcate, very shortly puberulent; third year’s branchlets gray, smooth; lenticels absent; leaf scars raised, semicircular; terminal buds ovoid, puberulent. Stipules persistent, deltoid, minute; petiole 5-7 mm, abaxially rounded, adaxially narrowly sulcate, puberulent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, shiny or not, ovate-oblong or obovate, 4-8.5 × 1.2-3.3 cm, leathery to thickly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, and reticulate veins obscure on both surfaces, base cuneate or obtuse, margin entire, apex acuminate or obtuse. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets, often with a dormant bud; flowers white, fragrant, 4- or 5-merous. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered; peduncles 1-3 mm; bracts deltoid, puberulent; pedicels 3-6 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 2, basal or subbasal, or absent; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., lobes 5 or 6, deltoid, margin erose, apex obtuse, ciliate; corolla rotate, 5-6 mm in diam., petals 4 or 5, oblong, basally slightly connate; stamens ca. as long as petals, anthers ovoid; rudimentary ovary subglobose. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; pedicels 6-8 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 1 or 2, basal, puberulent; calyx and corolla as in male flowers; staminodes ca. 3/4 as long as petals, sterile anthers and filaments puberulent; ovary subovoid, 1.5-2 mm in diam., style evident, ca. 1 mm, stigma capitate. Fruit red, globose, 5-6 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 6-8(-10) mm, puberulent; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 3 mm in diam.; persistent stigma columnar, ca. 1 mm; pyrenes 4 or 5, ellipsoidal-oblong, 4-5 mm, ca. 2 mm in diam., reticulately striate, endocarp leathery, rugose, hairy. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Jul-Dec.

Dense forests, sparse forests, mixed forests, shrubby areas, roadsides; 300-600 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi [N Vietnam].