Ilex montana
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| Ilex montana | ||||||||||||||
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| Ilex montana Torrey & A.Gray |
Ilex montana (Mountain Winterberry; also "Mountain Holly" which is more typically Ilex mucronata) is a species of holly native to the United States, ranging along the Appalachian Mountains from southeast Massachusetts to northeast Alabama and northern Georgia. Synonyms include Ilex monticola.[1]
It is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 9–12 m tall. The leaves are 3-9 cm long and 2-5 cm broad, light green, ovate or oblong, wedge-shaped or rounded at the base and acute at apex, with a serrated margin and an acuminate apex; they do not suggest the popular idea of a holly, with no spines or bristles. The flowers are 4–5 mm diameter, with a four-lobed white corolla, appearing in late spring when the leaves are more than half grown. The fruit is a spherical bright red drupe 8-10 mm diameter, containing four seeds.[2][3][4]
It is treated by some botanists as a variety of the related Ilex ambigua (Sand Holly), as I. ambigua var. monticola;[5] the two are sometimes mistaken for each other in the U.S. southeastern coastal plain.
[edit] References
- ^ USDA Plants Profile: Ilex montana
- ^ Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Ilex montana
- ^ Krakow, G. (1989). Key to Ilex (page 152), in Leonard E. Foote & Samuel B. Jones Native Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southeast.
- ^ Keeler, H. L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 45.
- ^ Institute for Systematic Botany (Florida): Ilex ambigua var. montana
