Ilex vomitoria Aiton, yaupon. Evergreen shrub, several–stemmed at base, highly branched, in range to 400 cm tall; dioecious; shoots with tough leaves, young growth puberulent and short–hairy.
Stems initially green and 1 mm diameter, puberulent, aging with light brownish gray periderm; bark dull tight gray.
Leaves helically alternate, simple, petiolate, without stipules; petiole somewhat flat on the upper side, 3—5 mm long, blade ± elliptic to obovate or ovate, 11—39 × 5—18 mm, tapered at base, low–toothed with minute purplish points on margins, obtuse to roundish at tip, pinnately veined with midrib somewhat raised on lower surface, upper blade glabrous, lower blade short–hairy along midrib aging glabrescent.
Inflorescences cymes, unisexual, axillary, mostly 1—3–flowered, bracteate; bractlet subtending pedicel, of staminate flower appressed, ovate, 0.4 mm long, of pistillate flower broadly triangular, ca. 0.3 mm long, reddish; pedicel of staminate flower 3—3.3 mm long with constriction at base, of pistillate flower 2—2.5 mm long not increasing in fruit.
Staminate flower radial, ca. 6 mm across; calyx shallowly 4–lobed; tube cup–shaped, ca. 0.8 mm long; lobes subequal, broadly acute–triangular to rounded semicircular, 0.3—0.4 mm long, green with colorless margins; corolla 4–lobed, white; tube cup–shaped, ca. 0.5 mm long; lobes ± obovate cupped above midpoint, 2.5—3 × 2—2.5 mm; stamens 4, free; filaments erect to ascending, 1.6—1.8 mm long, white; anthers basifixed, dithecal, 1.6—1.8 mm long, ± light yellow, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen light yellow; nectary disc beneath ovary but weakly defined, nectar–producing; pistil 1, sterile; ovary superior, hemispheroid weakly 2–lobed with groove, 1 mm wide, green, lacking chambers (ovules absent); style absent.
Pistillate flower radial, ca. 5 mm across; calyx shallowly 4–lobed; tube cup–shaped, ca. 0.8 mm long; lobes subequal, broadly acute–triangular to rounded semicircular, 0.3—0.4 mm long, green with colorless margins; corolla 4–lobed, white; tube cup–shaped, 0.4—0.5 mm long; lobes widely spreading, ± oblong, 2—2.6 mm long, often cupped above midpoint; stamens 4, fused at corolla sinuses, sterile; filaments suberect, ca. 1.2 mm long, flared and flattened at base, white; anthers basifixed, dithecal, vestigial, whitish; pollen absent; nectary disc surrounding ovary base; pistil 1; ovary superior, ovoid, 1.2—1.3 × 1.1—1.3 mm, green, glabrous, 4–chambered, each chamber with 1 ovule; style not obvious (constriction); stigma capitate, hemispheric, 0.8 mm across, green.
Fruit berrylike drupe, having to 4 stones. spheroid, 5.8—6.4 mm, scarlet to orangish red, with a black, stout, persistent beak (style); pulp juicy, watery yellow–orange; stone 1–seeded, 3–sided rounded on back and flat on 2 faces, ca. 3.5 mm long, tannish to pale brown.
A. C. Gibson