Himalayan Holly

The ‘Himalayan Holly’ is occassionally found in moist shady places (as ravines in forests etc.) from 1700-3100m. The attractive scarlet-red fruits along with the twigs are sometimes sold as decorations during the Christmas season.

A small to medium sized tree. Bark dark grey and rough. Shoots and twigs puberulous, glabrate. Leaves alternate, elliptic-lanceolate, 6.5-12 x 2.6-3.7 cm, coriaceous, margin spinose, thickened and slightly revolute, sometimes entire (in older leaves), subacuminate, midrib prominent on undersurface, impressed above, lamina glabrous and shiny above. Petiole 2-4 mm long, minutely pubescent. Flowers bi- or unisexual, in axillary globose clusters, whitish-green, 4-merous, bracteoles 2, triangular ovate, ± 1 mm long, pubescent. Petals obovate, connate at the base, free in the female flowers. Stamens adnate basally to the petals. Ovary ovoid, stigma sessile. Drupe globose, 10-12 mm broad, red-scarlet; pyrenes 2, plano-concave, 6 x 5mm, back deeply ribbed.

Shrubs or trees, evergreen, 2-15(-25) m tall; bark gray-black, slightly longitudinally fissured. Branchlets striate, puberulent or glabrescent; old branches gray-yellow, thick and strong, smooth or minutely fissured, lenticels obscure, leaf scars semicircular. Petiole 3-6 mm, abaxially rugose, adaxially sulcate and pubescent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, shiny, elliptic-oblong, elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, rarely ovate, 4-10 × 2-4 cm, thickly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein impressed, puberulent or glabrescent adaxially, lateral veins 6-9 pairs, raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin entire or subentire with 3-14 spines per side, apex shortly acuminate to acuminate, with a sharp spine. Inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; bracts ovate-lanceolate, ciliate; flowers greenish, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: pedicels 2-3 mm, sparsely puberulent or glabrescent; bracteoles basal, lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm; calyx discoid, ca. 3 mm in diam., deeply lobed, lobes ovate-deltoid, sparsely ciliate, apex acute or obtuse; corolla rotate, ca. 7 mm in diam., petals ovate, ca. 3 mm, ciliate, basally slightly connate; stamens 4, longer than petals, anthers oblong-ovoid; rudimentary ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., apex obtuse or truncate. Female inflorescences: pedicels 1-3 mm, sparsely puberulent or glabrescent; calyx and corolla as in male flowers; staminodes slightly shorter than petals, sterile anthers subcordate or sagittate; ovary ovoid, stigma discoid, lobed. Fruit red, globose, 7-9 mm in diam.; persistent calyx quadrangular; persistent stigma discoid, 2-4-lobed; pyrenes (1 or)2(-4), when 2 pyrenes: oblong-ellipsoidal or subglobose, 5-7 mm, ca. 5 mm in diam., abaxially palmately striate and sulcate, adaxially striate-sulcate; when 4 pyrenes: oblong, ca. 3.5 mm in diam.; endocarp woody. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Jun-Dec. 2n = 40.

Himalaya (Punjab to NEFA), N. Assam, N. Burma, W. China.

Distribution: The Himalayas from the Indus eastwards to Bhutan.

SW Hubei, SW Sichuan (Muli), SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, N Myanmar, Nepal].

2500-3000 m

Fl. Per.: April-June.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests, mixed forests, shrubby areas, valleys, roadsides; 2000-3400 m.

Ilex bioritsensis Hayata var. integra H. F. Comber; I. dipyrena var. connexiva W. W. Smith; I. dipyrena var. paucispinosa Loesener; I. monopyrena G. Watt ex Loesener.