错枝冬青 cuo zhi dong qing

Ilex intricata f. macrophylla H. F. Comber.

Shrubs evergreen, prostrate, small, 0.3-2 m tall, glabrous throughout. Branchlets brown to dark brown, terete, longitudinally ridged and verrucose; terminal buds ovoid, bud scales glabrous. Leaves on first to fourth year’s branchlets; petiole 1-2 mm, adaxially shallowly sulcate, winged by decurrent leaf base; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, shiny, obovate-elliptic, 0.5-2 × 0.3-0.9 cm, leathery or subleathery, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 2-4 pairs, raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins obscure abaxially, impressed adaxially, base obtuse or cuneate, margin serrate with 3-6 pairs of teeth, apex obtuse or rounded, with acumen. Inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary or few fascicled, fascicles 2- or 3-flowered, axillary on second year’s branchlets; bracts suborbicular, glabrous, not ciliate; flowers 4-merous, pink. Male inflorescences: pedicels ca. 2 mm, glabrous; bracteoles 2, subbasal, ovate-deltoid, glabrous, not ciliate; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., deeply 4-lobed, lobes ovate, not ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 5 mm in diam., petals oblong, ca. 2 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens 4, shorter than petals, anthers ovoid; rudimentary ovary subglobose, apex rounded. Female inflorescences: pedicels ca. 1 mm, glabrous; calyx as in male flowers; petals free, ovate, ca. 2 mm; staminodes ca. 2/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers cordate; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., style evident, stigma capitate, 4-lobed. Infructescences: 1(or 2)-fruited; fruiting pedicels ca. 2 mm. Fruit red, globose, ca. 5 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, quadrangular; persistent stigma thickly discoid, 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, oblong, ca. 4 mm, ca. 2 mm in diam., abaxially longitudinally palmately striate and sulcate, laterally striate and slightly rugose, endocarp woody. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Nov. 2n = 36*.

Abies forests; 3000-4000 m. W Sichuan, SE Xizang (Mêdog), NW Yunnan (Gongshan) [Bhutan, India, N Myanmar, Nepal].