Ilex ciliospinosa
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Ilex ciliospinosa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- I. bioritsensis var. ciliospinosa (Loes.) Comber
Other taxa in genus
- Ilex × altaclarensis
- Ilex aquifolium
- Ilex bioritsensis
- Ilex buergeri
- Ilex cassine
- 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 rubra
- Ilex rugosa
- Ilex serrata
- Ilex shennongjiaensis
- Ilex spinigera
- Ilex verticillata
- Ilex vomitoria
- Ilex yunnanensis
An evergreen shrub up to 12 or 15 ft high; young shoots covered with short down. Leaves leathery, ovate to oval, slender-pointed, spine-tipped, rounded to wedge-shaped at the base, spiny toothed, 1 to 2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide, dark dull green above, pale below, quite glabrous. Berries egg-shaped, 1⁄4 in. long, red, containing two stones; the berry is usually solitary in the axil of the leaves on a stalk 1⁄8 in. long.
Native of W. Szechwan, China; discovered by Wilson in 1904, introduced in 1908. This is a neat, small-leaved holly, erect and slender when small, and appears to be quite hardy at Kew. The specific name refers to the rather numerous, slender, forward-pointing teeth of the leaves, which are not particularly distinctive in this respect. It is considered to be related to I. dipyrena but is well distinguished by its much smaller stature, smaller, darker green leaves and round (not angular), more downy shoots.
It is hardy at Kew, where there is a multi-stemmed plant in the bed of I. verticillata, about 16 ft high.