Ilex guianensis Kuntze

Tree, evergreen, up to 15-20 (-25) m tall, the branches drying ashy grey to blackish, rarely light grey, glabrous, the branchlets glabrous or puberulent, the current wood puberulent with soft, short, white hairs, rarely glabrous, the puberu-lence sometimes scattered, striatulate when dry. Leaves with the blades coriaceous, sometimes thickly chartaceous, glabrous, or with a very few hairs on the costa beneath, infrequently very asymmetrical, rarely both symmetrical and asymmetrical leaves on a single branch, (3.1-)4-12.5(-15.6) cm long, (1.1-)2-5 cm broad, obovate, elliptic-obovate, narrowly obovate, sometimes oblong, elliptical, subspathulate-obovate or sublanceolate, the margins entire, sometimes a little thickened and revolute, rarely few-serrate or dentate, the apex acute or (short-) acuminate, some-times rounded obtuse or acuminately obtuse, rarely rounded-retuse or short-apicu-late (last fide Loesener), the base acute or cuneately acute, less often cuneate or long-or subspathulately acute, usually thinly decurrent over the entire length of the petiole, epunctate, puncticulate or punctate, the costa impressed above, elevated beneath, the veins and veinlets generally subobsolete to little conspicuous above and beneath; petiole mostly 6-14 mm long, usually a little thickened, often blackening in drying, usually sparsely puberulent with very short hairs, occasionally sub-glabrous, rarely glabrous. Flowers and inflorescences borne on new and old wood, axillary, lateral, fasciculate, rarely solitary, 4-or rarely 5-merous; 6' flowers pedunculate, rarely merely pedicellate; 9 flowers pedicellate, rarely pedunculate; c flowers borne on glabrous or puberulent pedicels, forming a fascicle of cymes or cyme-like inflorescences, rarely the peduncle either regularly or irregularly 2 X branched forming a paniculate inflorescence, very rarely 3 X branched, the peduncles (1.5-) 3-11(-14) mm long, usually 4-7 mm, the pedicels l/2 or frequently less than 1/2, usually 1/3-1/4 the length of the peduncle, rarely especially in bud a little more than l/2 the length of the peduncle; calyx glabrous, the lobes ca equaling to a little longer than the tube, broadly deltoid-triangular, usually acute, the margins eciliolate; petals 2.5-3 mm long, ca 1.7-2 mm broad, ovate, usually obtuse; stamens mostly a little longer than the petals, occasionally equal to or little shorter than the petals, the anthers mostly l/3-1/2 the lenght of the filament, rarely almost equaling, oblong or narrowly ovate, narrowed near the apex, rarely oblong-sagittate; pistillodium usually constricted near the apex, pulvinate, sometimes broadly ovoid or conical, a rudimentary punctate stigma frequently present; 9 flowers with the pedicels puberulent, up to 7.5 mm long, usually ca 2-4 mm long; calyx-tube occasionally sparsely puberulent; margins of the petals rarely remotely laciniate, otherwise perianth as in the 6' flower; staminodes a little shorter than the petals and a little longer than the ovary, the sterile anthers much shorter than the filaments, broadly ovate-sagittate; ovary ca 1.75; cm long, broadly ovoid to sub-globose or rarely globose, the stigma sessile, discoid. Fruit red or dark red in life, drying brown or occasionally blackish-brown, subglobose to globose, usually 4.5-  5.5(-6.5) mm long, 4.5-5(-7) mm in diam, smooth, the stigma punctate-discoid to subcoronate; mesocarp medium to subcopious; pyrenes 4, rarely 5, trigonous to broadly trigonous, dorsally usually smooth, occasionally unisulcate or shallowly unicanaliculate, a striatula sometimes in the sulcation, laterally smooth or with a gibbosity, ventrally blunt, occasionally 1 or 2 pyrenes aborted and sterile, when fertile 4.5-5 mm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, laterally vascular tissue (striae) often loosely adnate to the pyrene; endocarp medium hard, ligneous.

It is a tropical plant.

The leaves are used as a vegetable.