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

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 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]

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, USA.

References

1. ^ USDA Plants Profile: 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