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Ilex

Tourn. ex L. (1753)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Aquifoliales Family: Aquifoliaceae Genus: Ilex

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs or trees.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Surfaces coriaceous; upper surfaces usually shiny. Margins entire to toothed or spinescent. Petiolate. Stipules minute.

Flowers: Flowers in peduncles flattened, 1.3–5 cm long. Flowers unisexual, occasionally some of the flowers appearing bisexual (perfect). pedicels ca. 2–6 mm long with 2 bracteoles below the middle, these 2–3 mm long. Sepals persistent. Petals white or greenish, usually as many as sepals; rotate, connate at base, caducous. Stamens as many as petals, inserted at the base of the corolla, staminodia in pistillate flowers similar to fertile stamens, but usually smaller. Ovary superior, angled or lobed, usually 2–8-celled, rudimentary in staminate flowers; style usually absent; stigmas as many as cells of the ovary, distinct or connate.

Fruit: Fruit drupaceous; with as many 1–seeded pyrenes as carpels. Seeds with abundant oily or proteinaceous endosperm.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Island Status

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Notes

  • A nearly cosmopolitan genus. Besides the species treated here, Ilex cassine L. has been planted along the highway from Hilo to Volcano on Hawai‘i, and in Honolulu, O‘ahu, but it does not appear to have become naturalized. It differs from the 2 species below in its red to yellow fruit and narrowly oblanceolate to elliptic leaves with entire margins, rarely with a few small teeth in the upper half. Ilex is the Latin name for the holm oak tree, Quercus ilex L.
  • Description digitized by Pumehana Imada

Bibliography

Name Published In: Sp. Pl.: 125 (1753)

Other References

Wagner, W. L., Herbst, D. R., & Sohmer, S. H. (1999). Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i, Vols. 1 and 2 (No. Edn 2). University of Hawai'i and Bishop Museum Press.

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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