''Alchornea ilicifolia'', commonly known as the native holly, is a bush of eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It grows in or on the edges of the drier

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

s in coastal parts of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Description

The native holly is a shrub or rarely a small tree up to tall and with a trunk that is usually crooked, with pale grey smooth bark, with some pustules and

lenticel A lenticel is a porous tissue consisting of cells with large intercellular spaces in the periderm of the secondarily thickened organs and the bark of woody stems and roots of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It functions as a pore, providing a ...

s. Small branches greenish or fawn in color, with paler

s. The leaves are holly-like in appearance, long and wide. They are ovate or rhomboidal in shape with three or four

acute Acute may refer to: Science and technology * Acute angle ** Acute triangle ** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology * Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset. ** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...

lobes on each side, each of which is armed with a sharp spine. They are stiff and glabrous with a petiole around long.

Flowers and fruit

Greenish flowers appear in November, on

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s up to long, with male and female flowers on separate plants. The fruit is a dark brown, three-lobed capsule about in diameter, each lobe containing one seed. The plant may flower and fruit at any time of year after rain events.

Taxonomy

The botanist John Smith originally described this species as ''Caelebogyne ilicifolia'' in 1839, from three specimens collected by Allan Cunningham in 1829. The Swiss botanist Johann Müller gave it its current name in 1865. The generic name '' Alchornea'' honours the English botanist Stanesby Alchorne, while the species epithet ''ilicifolia'' refers to the holly-like leaves (

Ilex ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The speci ...

Distribution and habitat

This species grows in vine thickets and monsoon forest on a variety of soil types, from Jamberoo on the south coast of New South Wales to Atherton in far north Queensland.

Ecology

''Alchornea ilicifolia'' is a host plant for the larvae of the common albatross butterfly and the moth '' Dichomeris mesoctenis''.

Gallery

File:Alchornea ilicifolia flowers and foliage.jpg, Flowers File:Alchornea ilicifolia flowers.jpg, Flowers File:Alchornea ilicifolia fruit.jpg, Unripe fruit File:Alchornea ilicifolia.jpg, Habit

References

External links

* *
View a map
of historical sightings of this species at the

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgamat ...

View observations
of this species on iNaturalist
View images
of this species on Flickriver {{Taxonbar, from=Q4713056 Alchorneae Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Trees of Australia Ornamental trees