Ilex tetramera (Rehder) C. J. Tseng

Shrubs or trees, evergreen, (1.5-)3.5-12 m tall. Young branchlets yellow-brown, subterete, longitudinally angular and sulcate, glabrous or puberulent in groove near apex; older branchlets gray, fissured; leaf scars flattened; lenticels absent. Stipules deltoid, minute; petiole 4-7 mm, glabrous, adaxially broadly shallowly sulcate; leaf blade oblong-elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 5-9(-11) × (2-)2.3-3.5 cm, thickly papery or subleathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 7 or 8 pairs, abaxially prominent or raised, adaxially evident or obscure, furcate and anastomosing near margin, base obtuse or rounded, margin slightly recurved, crenulate, apices of teeth black and obtuse, or subentire, apex acuminate to caudate-acuminate, acumen 8-12 mm. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered, fasciculate, axillary on first to second year’s branchlets; peduncles very short, ca. 0.5 mm; bracts basal, ovate, ciliate; pedicels 1-3(-5) mm, puberulent or glabrous; bracteoles 2, basal, puberulent or glabrous; flowers yellow-white, 4-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, ciliate; corolla 5-6 mm in diam., petals obovate-oblong, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate, apex rounded; stamens longer than petals, anthers ovoid; rudimentary ovary subglobose, apex abruptly acute, minutely lobed. Female flowers not known. Infructescences: 1-fruited cymes, pseudoracemose or fasciculate; rachis 3-7 mm, glabrous; fruiting pedicels 2-3 mm, puberulent; bracteoles 2, basal, ovate, ciliate. Fruit red, globose, 5-6 mm; persistent calyx explanate, quadrangular, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, ciliate; persistent stigma navel-like, ca. 1 mm in diam., minutely lobed; pyrenes 4, oblong, ca. 4 mm, 2-2.5 mm in diam., abaxially convex, palmately striate and sulcate, laterally irregularly longitudinally striate and deeply sulcate, endocarp stony. Fl. Feb-Apr, fr. Oct.

Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests, sparse woods, shrubby areas, mountain slopes; 500-1800 m.