越南冬青 yue nan dong qing

Hexadica cochinchinensis Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 2: 562. 1790; Ilex ardisioides Loesener; I. cleyeroides Hayata; I. oligadenia Merrill & Chun.

Trees evergreen, ca. 15 m tall; bark gray or gray-brown. Branchlets red-brown, terete, longitudinally rugose; current year’s branchlets longitudinally striate-sulcate, puberulent along groove; second to third year’s with slightly raised, light-colored lenticels; leaf scars slightly raised, circular; terminal buds sub globose, very sparsely puberulent. Stipules deltoid, minute; petiole 7-10 mm, abaxially rounded, transversely plicate- rugose, glabrous, adaxially longitudinally broadly and shallowly sulcate; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, shiny, elliptic, oblong-elliptic, oblong-lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 6-16 × 3-4.5 cm, leathery, abaxially punctate, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed, narrowly and shallowly sulcate adaxially, lateral veins 7-12 pairs, curved, furcate and anastomosing near margin, slightly raised abaxially, flattened and evident adaxially, reticulate veins evident abaxially, obscure adaxially, base obtuse or cuneate, margin entire, apex acuminate. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 2, 3-flowered; bracts broadly deltoid, thickly leathery, apex acute; peduncles 6-10 mm; pedicels 2-3 mm, glabrous or minutely puberulent; flowers white, 4-merous; calyx patelliform, deeply 4-lobed, rarely 5-lobed, lobes orbicular, ciliate; corolla rotate, petals ovate, basally slightly connate, ciliate; stamens shorter than petals, anthers oblong-ovoid; rudimentary ovary rostrate. Female flowers not known. Infructescences: 1-fruited cymes, fascicles 3-7-fruited; fruiting pedicels 8-13(-15) mm, puberulent; bracteoles 1(or 2), subbasal, deltoid. Fruit red, globose, 5-7 mm in diam.; persistent calyx shallowly cup-shaped, ca. 4 mm in diam., puberulent, shallowly 4-lobed, lobes orbicular, ciliate; persistent stigma mammilliform, apex retuse, slightly 4-lobed; pyrenes 4 or 5, oblong-trigonous, 5-6 mm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., smooth, endocarp leathery. Fl. Feb-Apr, fr. May-Dec.

Dense forests, mixed forests, stream banks, valleys; middle elevations. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, S Taiwan [Cambodia, N Vietnam].