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

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It grows in or on the edges of the drier

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

s in coastal parts of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Description

The native holly is a shrub or rarely a small tree up to tall. The trunk is usually crooked, with pale grey smooth bark, and 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 (botany), bark of woody stems and roots of gymnosperms and dicotyledonous flowering plants. It func ...

s. Small branches are greenish or fawn in colour, with paler

s. The leaves are

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

-like in appearance, long and wide. They are ovate or rhomboidal in shape with three or four acute lobes on each side, each of which is armed with a sharp spine. They are stiff and

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

with a

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

around long.

Flowers and fruit

Greenish flowers appear in November, on

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, 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 ...

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 ''Alchornea'' is a plant genus of the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1788. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, South Asia, Australia, Latin America, and various oceanic islands. Mo ...

'' honours the English botanist Stanesby Alchorne, while the

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

''ilicifolia'' refers to the holly-like leaves (

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

Distribution and habitat

This species grows in vine thickets and monsoon forest on a variety of soil types, from

Jamberoo Jamberoo is a village on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia in the Municipality of Kiama. It is approximately 11.3 km inland from Kiama. At the , Jamberoo had a population of 1,910. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal w ...

on the south coast of New South Wales to Atherton in far north Queensland.

Ecology

''Alchornea ilicifolia'' is a

host plant In biology and medicine, a host is a larger organism that harbours a smaller organism; whether a parasitic, a mutualistic, or a commensalist ''guest'' (symbiont). The guest is typically provided with nourishment and shelter. Examples include a ...

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 amalgama ...

View observations
of this species on

iNaturalist iNaturalist is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its web ...

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