About Ilex asprella (Hook. & Arn.) Champ. ex Benth.
Ilex asprella (Hook. & Arn.) Champ. ex Benth. is a densely branched deciduous shrub that reaches up to 3 meters in height. Its long shoots are glabrous, brown, and slender, while its short shoots are green with prominent white lenticels. The leaves are thin-chartaceous, with glandular dots on their lower surface, and ovate in shape, measuring 4 to 5 cm long and 1.5 to 2.5 cm wide. Each leaf has an acuminate apex, a cuneate base, and a serrulate margin; the adaxial nerves are hirsute, and the leaf surface is nearly glabrous beneath. Petioles are 3 to 8 mm long. Leaves have reticulate venation with 6 to 8 pairs of pinnate lateral veins. Flowers are white, arranged in axillary umbels with slender pedicels, and the species is dioecious. Male inflorescences hold 2 to 5 flowers, each approximately 2.5 to 3 mm in diameter. Male flowers are glabrous, with 4 or 5 suborbicular petals that have erose margins; the corolla is rotate, with petals slightly connate at the base. Stamens are about 3/4 as long as the petals, with oblong anthers measuring around 1 mm. Female inflorescences hold 4 to 6 flowers, which are glabrous and around 3 mm in diameter. Female flowers number 4 to 6 per inflorescence; the calyx is deeply divided into 4 to 6 lobes. The corolla is rotate, with suborbicular petals slightly connate at the base. Staminodes are around 1 mm long, with sterile sagittate anthers. The ovary is ovoid, around 1.5 mm in diameter, with a present style and a thickly discoid stigma. The fruit is a black, globose drupe with a stony endocarp, measuring 5 mm long and 4 mm across, held on a pedicel 2 to 3 cm long. Ilex asprella is adapted to tropical climates and humus-rich soils. It grows most densely in thickets at low altitudes between 400 and 1000 m in Luzon, southeast China, and Taiwan.
