Ilex cinerea Champ. ex Benth.

Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 3-6 m tall. Branchlets brown or gray, straight, longitudinally angular and sulcate; leaf scars semicircular, slightly raised, lenticels absent; current year’s branchlets minutely pubescent when young; terminal buds conical, ca. 3 mm, bud scales pubescent. Petiole 2-4 mm, minutely pubescent and rugose; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, oblong-oblanceolate, 7-15 × 2-4 cm, leathery, adaxially glabrous except on midvein, midvein impressed and pubescent adaxially, lateral veins 9-11 pairs, raised abaxially, obscure adaxially, reticulate veins evident abaxially, base obtuse or rounded, margin crenulate or serrate, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; flowers yellowish green, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: 3-9-flowered cymes, pubescent; bracts deltoid-ovate, apex with stipulelike appendages; peduncle 1-2 mm; secondary axis ca. 1 mm; pedicels 3-4 mm; bracteoles 2, subbasal, lanceolate, membranous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes suborbicular, sparsely pubescent and ciliate; corolla ca. 7 mm in diam., petals 4, oblong, ca. 3 × 2.3 mm, basally slightly connate, apex ciliate. Stamens 4, ca. as long as or shorter than petals; anthers ovoid-oblong; rudimentary ovary globose, ca. 1 mm in diam., glabrous. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; bracts suborbicular; pedicels 2-3 mm; bracteoles ciliate; calyx subcupulate, ca. 2 mm in diam., pubescent, shallowly 4-lobed, lobes orbicular, ciliate; petals ca. 3 mm, nearly free at base; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary oblong-ellipsoidal, ca. 2 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., pubescent, apex truncate, stigma discoid. Fruit red, globose, ca. 7 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., lobes ciliate; persistent stigma discoid, 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, obovoid, ca. 4 mm, ca. 3 mm in diam., abaxially palmately longitudinally striate and sulcate, laterally rugose, endocarp stony. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. May-Oct.

Mountain forests; high elevations. Guangdong (Hebao Dao), Hainan, Hong Kong [Vietnam].

Ilex cinerea var. faberi Loesener.

Ilex cinerea là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Aquifoliaceae. Loài này được Champ. ex Benth. mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1852.

灰冬青（学名：Ilex cinerea）为冬青科冬青属的植物，为中国的特有植物。分布于中国大陆的香港、海南、广东等地，多生在高海拔林中，目前尚未由人工引种栽培。