Ilex rubra
Credits
Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton
Recommended citation
'Ilex rubra' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Other taxa in genus
- Ilex × altaclarensis
- Ilex aquifolium
- Ilex bioritsensis
- Ilex buergeri
- Ilex cassine
- Ilex ciliospinosa
- Ilex corallina
- Ilex cornuta
- Ilex crenata
- Ilex cyrtura
- Ilex decidua
- Ilex dipyrena
- Ilex fargesii
- Ilex forrestii
- Ilex geniculata
- Ilex glabra
- Ilex hayatana
- Ilex hookeri
- Ilex integra
- Ilex intricata
- Ilex kingiana
- Ilex laevigata
- Ilex latifolia
- Ilex linii
- Ilex macrocarpa
- Ilex melanotricha
- Ilex mitis
- Ilex montana
- Ilex nothofagifolia
- Ilex opaca
- Ilex pedunculosa
- Ilex perado
- Ilex pernyi
- Ilex purpurea
- Ilex rotunda
- Ilex rugosa
- Ilex serrata
- Ilex shennongjiaensis
- Ilex spinigera
- Ilex verticillata
- Ilex vomitoria
- Ilex yunnanensis
Small tree 4–10 m. Branchlets slightly pubescent. Leaves evergreen, thickly leathery, (2.5–)4.3–6(–7) × 1.6–3 cm, ovate to elliptic, upper surface glossy dark green, glabrous or minutely pubescent along the midrib, lower surface minutely pubescent, 6–10 secondary veins on each side of the midrib, margins somewhat thickened and revolute, entire to serrate, rarely spinose, apex acute to acuminate; petiole thickened, puberulent, 0.3–0.7 cm. Inflorescences axillary, solitary. Flowers solitary or clustered, 4-merous. Fruit dark red, shiny and globose to subglobose, large for the genus, 0.7–0.9 cm diameter, with four pyrenes. Loesener 1901, Edwin 1964, Galle 1997. Distribution MEXICO: Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas. Habitat Coniferous forests, c.1000 m asl. USDA Hardiness Zone 7b. Conservation status Not evaluated.
This small holly is still rare in cultivation but it is represented in both North American and European gardens, and with its large fruits deserves to be more widely grown. It seems to have been first introduced by Yucca Do Nursery, Hempstead, Texas, in the early 1990s, from collections made in the San Carlos mountains, Tamaulipas. Material from this source is growing at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. The few examples known in the United Kingdom seem also to be derived from Yucca Do, including a dense 1.8 m shrub at Westonbirt (S. Andrews, pers. comm. 2007). A plant at Tregrehan is now 3 m tall and flourishing after a slow start (T. Hudson, pers. comm. 2007). It does well at Arboretum Trompenburg, where a specimen obtained from J.C. Raulston in 1994 is now 2 m tall (J. Van Meulder, pers. comm. 2007).