多脉冬青 duo mai dong qing

Ilex micrococca Maximowicz var. polyneura Handel-Mazzetti, Symb. Sin. 7: 654. 1933; I. polyneura var. glabra S. Y. Hu.

Trees deciduous, ca. 20 m tall. Current year’s branchlets castaneous, shiny, with conspicuous elliptic lenticels, glabrous; second year’s branchlets gray-brown, longitudinally angular and sulcate, raised, semicircular. Stipules scale-form, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm; petiole 1.5-3 cm, abaxially rounded, glabrous, adaxially deeply sulcate, puberulent in groove; leaf blade oblong-elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 8-15 × 3.5-6.5 cm, papery or thinly leathery, abaxially minutely puberulent, especially on lateral veins, adaxially glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, anastomosing near margin, lateral veins 10-20 pairs, reticulate veins evident on both surfaces, base rounded or obtuse, rarely oblique, margin finely sharply serrate, apex long acuminate. Inflorescences: cymes umbelliform, solitary, axillary on current year’s branchlets; secondary axis usually absent or shorter than pedicels; peduncles 6-9 mm, slightly compressed, sparsely puberulent; bracts absent; pedicels 2.5-4 mm, sparsely puberulent; bracteoles 2, basal; flowers white, 6- or 7-merous. Male flowers: calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., deeply 6- or 7-lobed, lobes deltoid, glabrous, margin erose; corolla rotate, ca. 4 mm in diam., petals ovate, ca. 2 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens ca. as long as or slightly shorter than petals, anthers oblong, ca. 1 mm; rudimentary ovary pyramidal and rostellate, apex lobed. Female flowers: calyx and corolla as in male flowers; petals oblong, ca. 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm in diam., stigma discoid. Fruit globose, ca. 4 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 4-5 mm; persistent calyx ca. 3 mm in diam.; persistent stigma discoid, convex; pyrenes 6 or 7, ellipsoidal, 2-2.5 mm, ca. 1 mm in diam., abaxially longitudinally narrowly 1-sulcate, endocarp leathery. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Oct-Dec.

● Forests, shrub forests in valleys; 1000-2600 m. Guizhou (Bijie), SW Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.