溪畔冬青 xi pan dong qing

Ilex rivularis Y. K. Li, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 24: 399. 1986, not Gardner (1842).

Shrubs evergreen, ca. 2 m tall. Young branchlets dark brown; older branchlets gray-black, glabrescent. Petiole 3-9 mm, adaxially longitudinally sulcate, puberulent or glabrous; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, (0.7-)1-3.5 × (0.4-)0.7-1.7 cm, thickly leathery, abaxially punctate, glabrous except at base, adaxially puberulent at base when young, midvein flat abaxially, deeply impressed, puberulent adaxially, lateral veins very inconspicuous on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin entire, apex retuse, not obtuse. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate or solitary, axillary, puberulent. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered; peduncles 3-6 mm; pedicels 4-8 mm; bracteoles 2, above middle; flowers 5- or 6-merous, rarely 7-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., glabrous, lobes suborbicular, not ciliate; corolla white, rotate, ca. 5 mm in diam., petals 5 or 6, rarely 7, oblong, 4.5-5.5 mm, glabrous, apex rounded; stamens 5 or 6, rarely 7, ca. 1/2 as long as petals; rudimentary ovary subglobose. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, solitary or few fascicled, fascicles 2-flowered; pedicels 6-9 mm; bracteoles 2, below middle; calyx and corolla as in male flowers; staminodes 5-7, globose; ovary globose, stigma discoid. Fruit red, compressed globose, ca. 3 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 6-9 mm; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 2 mm in diam.; persistent stigma discoid; pyrenes 5 or 6, rarely 7, ellipsoidal, ca. 1.5 mm, abaxially raised striate, not sulcate, endocarp leathery. Fl. May, fr. unknown.

● Stream banks, mountains. S Guizhou (Libo).