Ilex rotunda Thunb.

Shrubs or trees, evergreen, to 20 m tall; trunk to 1 m d.b.h.; bark gray to gray-black. Young branchlets longitudinally angular, glabrous, rarely puberulent; older branchlets terete, straight, rough, longitudinally fissured, with slightly raised obovate or deltoid leaf scars, lenticels inconspicuous; terminal buds conical, small. Stipules subulate-lanceolate, 1-1.5 mm, caducous; petiole 8-18 mm, glabrous, rarely slightly puberulent, narrowly sulcate adaxially; leaf blade ovate, obovate, or elliptic, 4-9 × 1.8-4 cm, thinly leathery or papery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 6-9 pairs, evident on both surfaces, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins obscure, base obtuse or cuneate, margin entire, slightly recurved, apex shortly acuminate. Inflorescences: cymes of order (2 or)3 or 4, (2-)4-13-flowered, umbelliform, solitary, axillary on current year’s branchlets. Male inflorescences: peduncles 3-11 mm, glabrous; pedicels 3-5 mm, glabrous or puberulent; bracteoles 1 or 2, or absent, basal, ovate-deltoid; flowers white, 4-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., puberulent, shallowly 4-lobed, lobes broadly ovate-deltoid, glabrous, not ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 5 mm in diam., petals reflexed at anthesis, oblong, ca. 2.5 × 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens longer than petals, anthers ovoid-ellipsoidal; rudimentary ovary pulvinate, rostellate, apex 5-or 6-lobed. Female inflorescences: cymes of order 2 or 3, 3-7-flowered; peduncles 5-13 mm, glabrous; pedicels (3-)4-8 mm, glabrous or puberulent; flowers white, 5(-7)-merous; calyx shallowly cup-shaped, ca. 2 mm in diam., glabrous, shallowly 5-lobed, lobes deltoid, margin erose; corolla rotate, ca. 4 mm in diam., petals obovate-oblong, ca. 2 mm, basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers ovoid; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, stigma capitate. Fruit red, subglobose, rarely ellipsoid, 4-6 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 3 mm in diam., shallow lobes deltoid, not ciliate; persistent stigma thickly discoid, convex, shallowly 5-or 6-lobed; pyrenes 5-7, ellipsoidal, ca. 5 mm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., abaxially 3-striate and 2-sulcate, rarely 2-striate and 1-sulcate, laterally smooth, endocarp subwoody. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Aug-Dec.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in evergreen broad-leaved forests in southern China between 400-1,100 m above sea level. In Yunnan.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings.