A more detailed description that offers a wider range of character options 

 and correlations based on study of a great many living plants, herbarium 

 specimens, and references follows. 



Ilex crenata: dense, evergreen, multiple-branched shrub or small tree to 

 6 m; habit very variable from fastigiate, narrowly conical to low 

 spreading, or low, compact dwarf shrub; branchlets densely pubescent, 

 often with foliage apically crowded. Buds broad-conical or poorly 

 developed with loose scales. Leaves alternate, simple, coriaceous to thin- 

 coriaceous, glabrous, glossy or dull, mostly dark green to olive-green 

 above, rarely variegated, plicate and rugulose, dull and punctate below; 

 obovate, to ovate, or oblong-elliptic, rarely ovate or orbicular, (0.3-) 1.5-4 

 (-5) cm long, (0.3-) 0.5-2 (-3) cm wide; margins mostly flat or 

 occasionally convex-bullate and wide revolute; bases obtuse, acute, or 

 cuneate; apices obtuse-rounded to subacute, mucronulate primarily; 

 margins crenate or serrate with (2-) 6-10 pairs of usually blunt, appressed 

 teeth, sometimes subentire; midveins often puberulent above, 2-3 pairs of 

 lateral veins; stipules 0.5-1 mm long; petioles persistent, subulate, (1-) 2-3 

 (-5) mm long, canaliculate, and puberulent. Male inflorescences cymose or 

 subumbellate, 1-7 flowered, usually 3, solitary and axillary on current 

 year's branchlets or, rarely, pseudofasciculate on second-year wood; 

 peduncles (3-) 4-8 (-10) mm long, bearing white, 4-merous, rotate flowers, 

 (3-) 4-6 mm in diameter; corolla lobes broadly elliptic, 2-3 mm long, often 

 ascending then spreading; stamens 1-2 mm long; pistillodes conical, 

 somewhat apiculate; calyces 1.5-2 mm diameter, glabrous, with broad- 

 deltoid, erose lobes. Female inflorescences solitary or rarely 2-3-flowered, 

 cymose, axillary on current year's branchlets; pedicels (1-) 4-6 mm long, 

 clavate, ridged, with 1-2 submedial prophylls; corollas same as in males 

 except lobes ovate, 3-4 mm long; staminodes 1.5-2 mm long; ovaries 

 ovoid-conical, 1.5-2.5 mm long with evident styles and discoid, 4-lobed 

 stigmas; calyces 2-3 mm diameter with obtuse-rounded lobes. Fruit 

 globose, black or very rarely yellow-green, 5-8 (-12) mm diameter; 

 calyces explanate, persistent, 3-3.5 mm diameter; stigmas minute, thinly 

 discoid, 1-1.5 mm diameter, distinctly 4-lobed; pyrenes (2-) 4-5 (-16), 

 usually 4, oblong-ellipsoid, 5-6 mm long, 3-3.5 mm wide, smooth, and 

 esculcate. 



This species is native to Japan, Korea, People's Republic of China, 

 Sakhalin, Kuril Islands, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the Himalayas and is 

 extraordinarily polymorphic with respect to plant habit, leaf size, leaf 

 shape and texture, marginal crenations, and variegation. Numerous wild- 

 occurring botanical varieties and forms have been discovered and named, 

 as have been hundreds of cultivars. 



