Alchornea ilicifolia

The native holly is a shrub or rarely a small tree up to 6 m (20 ft) tall. The trunk is usually crooked, with pale grey smooth bark, and some pustules and lenticels. Small branches are greenish or fawn in colour, with paler lenticels.^[5][6] The leaves are holly-like in appearance, 2 to 8 cm (0.8 to 3 in) long and 2 to 5 cm (0.8 to 2 in) wide.^[5][6][7] 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.^[5][6][7] They are stiff and glabrous with a petiole around 3 mm (0.1 in) long.^[5][6][7]

Greenish flowers appear in November, on racemes up to 5 cm (2 in) long, with male and female flowers on separate plants.^[5][6][7] The fruit is a dark brown, three-lobed capsule about 6 to 8 mm (0.2 to 0.3 in) in diameter, each lobe containing one seed.^[5][6][7] The plant may flower and fruit at any time of year after rain events.^[6]

The botanist John Smith originally described this species as Caelebogyne ilicifolia in 1839, from three specimens collected by Allan Cunningham in 1829.^[8] The Swiss botanist Johann Müller gave it its current name in 1865.^[3] The generic name Alchornea honours the English botanist Stanesby Alchorne,^[9] while the species epithet ilicifolia refers to the holly-like leaves (Ilex).

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.^[5][6][7]

Alchornea ilicifolia is a host plant for the larvae of the common albatross butterfly and the moth Dichomeris mesoctenis.^[10][11]