- Scientific Name: Ilex ficoidea Hemsl.
- Ref: J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 23:116. 1886
- English Common Name: fig-like holly
- Chinese Common Name: 榕叶冬青 róngyè dōngqīng
- Family: Aquifoliaceae
- Genus: Ilex
- Distribution: Evergreen broad-leaved forests, thickets, forest margins, sparse woods, mountains; (100-)300-1500 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan].
- Photo: 03/31/2013
Shrubs or trees, evergreen, 2-12 m tall. Young branchlets longitudinally angular and sulcate, glabrous; older than second year’s branchlets yellow-brown or brown, smooth; leaf scars semicircular, flattened; lenticels absent. Stipules very minute, caducous; petiole 6-10 mm, abaxially rounded, transversely striate, adaxially sulcate; leaf blade adaxially deep green, shiny, elliptic, oblong, ovate, or obovate-elliptic, 4.5-10 × 1.5-3.5 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, midvein narrowly impressed adaxially, lateral veins 8-10 pairs, slightly raised abaxially, obscure adaxially, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins obscure, base obtuse, cuneate, or subrounded, margin irregularly crenate-serrate, apices of teeth black and slightly recurved when dry, apex abruptly long caudate, acumen ca. 1.5 cm. Inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered, fasciculate, axillary on current year’s branchlets; flowers white or yellowish green, fragrant, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered; peduncles ca. 2 mm; bracts scaly, ovate, ca. 1 mm, abaxially median keeled, base with appendage, apex acute, ciliate; pedicels 1-3 mm; bracteoles 2, basal or subbasal; calyx patelliform, 2-2.5 mm, lobes deltoid, apex acute, ciliate; corolla ca. 6 mm in diam., petals ovate-oblong, ca. 3 × 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate, apically ciliate; stamens longer than petals, anthers oblong-ovoid; rudimentary ovary ovoid-conical, ca. 1 mm in diam., apex minutely 4-lobed. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; pedicels 2-3 mm; bracteoles 2, basal, ciliate; calyx puberulent or glabrescent, lobes often keeled; corolla erect, 3-4 mm in diam., petals free, ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, ciliate; staminodes ca. as long as petals, sterile anthers ovoid, small; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, ca. 1 mm in diam., stigma discoid. Fruit red, globose or subglobose, 5-7 mm in diam., tuberculate (under lens); persistent calyx explanate, quadrangular, ca. 2 mm in diam.; persistent stigma thinly discoid or navel-like; pyrenes 4, ovoid or subglobose, 3-4 mm, 1.5-2.5 mm in diam., both ends obtuse, abaxially palmately striate, longitudinally slightly 1-sulcate, laterally rugose and pitted, endocarp stony. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Aug-Nov. (Flora of China)
