e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1710324294145_27292312847408184" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 -<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1710324294145_19658838183326854" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span> Ilex
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Aquifoliaceae - Ilex L.

Description:

  • Trees or shrubs, monoecious, sometimes dioecious, evergreen
  • Leaves alternate, petioled, simple, entire or toothed, glabrous; stipules minute, semipersistent
  • Flowers unisexual, regular, small, in 1-few-flowered, pubescent, axillary cymes
  • Calyx 5- or 6- lobed, imbricate, ciliate
  • Corolla 5- or 6-lobed, imbricate, ciliate, white
  • Stamens 5 or 6, alternating with but basally adhering to petals; anthers 2-thecous with longitudinal dehiscence
  • Ovary superior, 5- or 6-locular, with 1 or 2 pendulous ovules in each locule; stigma sessile, capitate or discoid, prominent
  • Fruit a small globose drupe, ripening pink to crimson, containing 5 or 6 pyrenes
  • Seeds: embryo small, endosperm copious
  • x = 10 (9 or 12, 17, 19) (high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Ilex L.
    • Linnaeus:125 (1753)
    • Sonder: 473 (1860)
    • Andrews: 163 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species ± 400, mostly Asia and America
  • Southern Africa: Species 1: Ilex mitis (L.) Radlk. var. mitis, widespread in subtropical and temperate forests

References:

  • ANDREWS, S. 1994. FSA contributions 1: Aquifoliaceae. Bothalia 24
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • SONDER, O.W. 1860. Aquifoliaceae. Flora capensis 1

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