Ilex nothofagifolia Kingdon-Ward

Ilex nothofagifolia has been introduced several times in the past century, first and perhaps unsuccessfully by Kingdon-Ward, but more recently by Peter Cox and Peter Hutchison (Cox & Hutchison 424), from their expedition to northeastern India in 1965. Plants from this collection grow well in the Cox family garden at Baravalla, Argyll on the west coast of Scotland, in comparatively mild conditions. Another specimen from the same collection has done very well in Vancouver since 1989 and has shown no sign of winter damage there, being now a bushy 4 m tall. This example has vigorous vertical stems as well as the spreading branches associated with the species, and looks set to become a nice tree, its dainty appearance a useful foil to heavy-leaved rhododendrons (P. Wharton, pers. comm. 2007). Other than this, however, I. nothofagifolia is scarcely known in North America. Kenneth Cox (pers. comm. 2007), who has also collected the species, in Arunachal Pradesh, reports that only the female trees have the distinctive horizontal branching while the males are less regular, but Susyn Andrews (pers. comm. 2007) has observed male plants with regular branching in cultivation. The specimen from which our illustration (Figure 44) was made is a potted plant growing at Westonbirt and derives from a collection made by Maurice Foster in Yunnan in 1994 (Foster 94116A). Potted plants at Westonbirt have, however, been badly damaged or killed by frost (S. Andrews, pers. comm. 2007). Susyn Andrews believes that it likes mild, very wet conditions to thrive, citing a successful specimen long grown at Inverewe on the west coast of northern Scotland. It is rare in European collections, probably because, as at Arboretum Bokrijk, it does not survive harsh winters. With its diminutive, tightly placed leaves and flattened shoots, it is a very distinctive plant.