Ilex crenata

I. crenata is native to temperate and subtropical parts of eastern China (including Hainan), Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Himalayas (Nepal, India, Tibet), Myanmar, Vietnam and Sakhalin, Russia.^[2]

It is an evergreen shrub growing to a height of 3–4 m (rarely 10 m) tall, with a trunk diameter up to 20 cm. The leaves are glossy dark green, small, 10–30 mm long and 10–17 mm broad, with a crenate (wavy) margin, sometimes spiny. The plants are dioecious (having separate male and female plants), with white, four-lobed flowers. The fruit is a black drupe (stone fruit) 5 mm diameter, containing four seeds. It grows well in acidic soil, between a pH of 3.8 and 6.0.^[3][4][5]

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  close-up of flowers
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  close-up of drupes

Ilex crenata is grown as an ornamental plant for its dense evergreen foliage, and is a popular plant among bonsai enthusiasts and suburban property developers alike.^[6] It is superficially similar in appearance to boxwood (box), and is often used in similar situations, such as low hedging; but it can readily be distinguished from boxwood by its alternate, not opposite, leaf arrangement.^[7]

Numerous cultivars have been selected, including plants with the leaves variegated (e.g. 'Golden Gem', 'Shiro-Fukurin'), dark green (e.g. 'Green Lustre'), or greyish-green (e.g. 'Bad Zwischenahn'); with yellow fruit (e.g. 'Ivory Hall'); and with an erect habit (e.g. 'Chesapeake' and 'Sky Pencil'), and spreading (e.g. 'Green Island', 'Hetzii'), or dwarf (e.g. 'Mariesii', 'Stokes').^[5][8] The cultivars 'Golden Gem'^[9] and ‘Fastigiata’ (Fastigiata Group)^[10] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.^[11]