Ilex montana

Ilex montana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Aquifoliales
Family: Aquifoliaceae
Genus: Ilex
Species: I. montana
Binomial name
Ilex montana
Torrey & A.Gray
Natural range

Ilex montana, the mountain winterberry (or "mountain holly" which is more typically Ilex mucronata), is a species of holly native to the Eastern United States, ranging along the Appalachian Mountains from southeast Massachusetts to northeast Alabama and northern Georgia. Synonyms include Ilex monticola.[1]

Description

Ilex montana is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 9–12 metres (30–39 ft) 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 leaves turn yellow before dropping in late autumn.[2]

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.[3][4][5]

Taxonomy

It is treated by some botanists as a variety of the related Ilex ambigua (Sand Holly), as I. ambigua var. monticola;[6] the two are sometimes mistaken for each other in the U.S. southeastern coastal plain.

Ilex montana branches and leaves near Blackbird Knob, Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia.

See also

References

  1. ↑ USDA: Ilex montana
  2. ↑ Tree Trail article on Ilex montana
  3. ↑ Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Ilex montana
  4. ↑ Krakow, G. (1989). Key to Ilex (page 152), in Leonard E. Foote & Samuel B. Jones Native Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southeast.
  5. ↑ Keeler, H. L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scriber's Sons. p. 45.
  6. ↑ Institute for Systematic Botany (Florida): Ilex ambigua var. montana
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