Ilex franchetiana Loes.

Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 2-8(-12) m tall, glabrous throughout. Branchlets brown, subterete, longitudinally angular and sulcate; leaf scars broadly deltoid, flat or slightly raised, lenticels absent; terminal buds conical, apically acute, bud scales ciliate. Stipules persistent, deltoid, small, apically acute; petiole 1-2 cm, abaxially rugose, adaxially sulcate; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially dark green, rather shiny, oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, rarely obovate or elliptic, (3-)6-12.5 × (1.2-)2-4.2 cm, subleathery, midvein slightly impressed adaxially, lateral veins (6-)8-15 pairs, both surfaces distinct, reticulate veins distinct abaxially, base cuneate or obtuse, margin narrowly recurved, serrulate, teeth black tipped and with hard acumen, apex acuminate or acute. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; bracts caducous, broadly ovate, ca. 4 mm, margin erose or ciliate; flowers greenish, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered; peduncles 1-1.5 mm; pedicels 2-5 mm; bracteoles 2, basal; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., deeply 4-lobed, lobes deltoid, minutely ciliate, apex obtuse or rounded; petals 4, oblong, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens rather shorter than petals, anthers oblong; rudimentary ovary conical, apex obtuse, 4-lobed. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; pedicels 3-4 mm; bracteoles 2, submedian; calyx as in male flowers; petals free, ovate, ca. 2 mm; staminodes ca. 3/4 as long as petals, sterile anthers cordate; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., glabrous, apex truncate, stigma discoid. Infructescences: fruiting pedicels 4-5 mm. Fruit red, globose, (3-)6-7 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, quadrangular 2-3 mm in diam.; persistent stigma thinly discoid; pyrenes 4(or 5), oblong, (2-)5-6 mm, 2.5-3 mm in diam., abaxially slightly raised, palmately striate and sulcate, laterally striate and rugose, endocarp woody. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Nov.

Guizhou, Hubei, Sichuan, SE Xizang, NE Yunnan [N Myanmar].

Forests, hills; 800-2300(-2900) m.