Ilex

Evergreen or deciduous shrubs or small trees, usually dioecious. Leaves usually alternate, entire or dentate, often shiny, petiolate; stipules small, caducous. Inflorescences axillary cymes or cymose fascicles, rarely flowers solitary. Flowers usually unisexual, small, inconspicuous, whitish or pinkish; sepals usually 4, small, connate at base; petals usually 4, elliptic or oblong, free or united at base; stamens usually 4, epipetalous, slightly shorter than petals, reduced to staminodes in female flowers, filaments subulate, anthers dorsifixed, versatile; ovary usually 4-celled, sessile, rudimentary in male flowers, stigma 4-lobed, sessile. Drupe subglobose, berry-like; pyrenes usually 2–5, bony, smooth, ribbed or striate, 1-seeded.