At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
From few records: 10 records in 4 grid cells. The records.
Summary
Ilex cinerea, the gray holly or Hong Kong holly, is a species of flowering plant in the family Aquifoliaceae, native to Hong Kong, Hebao Island, and Hainan in China, and to northern Vietnam. An evergreen shrub or small tree usually 3 to 6 m (10 to 20 ft) tall, it is found at higher elevations in mountain forests. It is used as a street tree in Hong Kong.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ilex cinerea", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · 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 deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Holly", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,826 mm of 2,269 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.2 °C against a yearly mean of 22.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.
Rain
2,269 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,826 mm of it May to September. Wettest month June at 439 mm, driest month January at 23 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,121 mm to 2,383 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,265 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,269 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 6.8 °C, the absolute minimum 2.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.9 °C to 13.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.3 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 71% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +83 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
From few records: this habitat climate is read from 10 records in 4 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 18 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul, Aug and Sep; mean nightly low from 13 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul and Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 2,269 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 4 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 2.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 18 / 18–18 | 19 / 19–19 | 21 / 21–22 | 25 / 24–25 | 27 / 27–27 | 28 / 28–29 | 29 / 29–30 | 29 / 29–30 | 29 / 28–29 | 27 / 26–27 | 23 / 23–23 | 19 / 19–20 |
| Night °C | 13 / 12–13 | 15 / 14–15 | 17 / 17–17 | 21 / 20–21 | 23 / 23–24 | 25 / 25–26 | 26 / 26–26 | 26 / 26–26 | 25 / 24–25 | 22 / 22–22 | 18 / 17–18 | 14 / 13–14 |
| Rain mm | 23 / 21–24 | 53 / 49–57 | 75 / 70–82 | 162 / 153–172 | 311 / 292–336 | 439 / 413–466 | 383 / 356–391 | 398 / 374–416 | 295 / 273–308 | 64 / 56–66 | 40 / 37–42 | 26 / 24–27 |
| DLI | 21 / 21–22 | 22 / 21–22 | 26 / 25–27 | 30 / 28–31 | 32 / 30–32 | 32 / 31–33 | 36 / 35–37 | 33 / 32–34 | 32 / 31–32 | 30 / 30–31 | 25 / 25–25 | 22 / 22–22 |
| RH % | 61 / 59–62 | 65 / 64–66 | 68 / 66–69 | 70 / 68–71 | 71 / 69–71 | 71 / 70–72 | 70 / 69–71 | 70 / 69–71 | 67 / 65–67 | 62 / 61–63 | 60 / 58–61 | 58 / 57–59 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Phyllanthus cochinchinensis Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, sucker69420
Syzygium levinei Myrtaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Cheniella glauca Climbing Bauhinia Photo: CC BY, Toby Y
Ailanthus fordii Simaroubaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Pyrenaria spectabilis Theaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz
Ormosia emarginata Emarginate-leaved Ormosia Photo: CC0, author not statedOther Ilex 63 in the reference
Ilex ambigua Aquifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, Shelby Lyn Sanders
Ilex amelanchier Sarvis holly Photo: CC BY-SA, Jeff Niznik
Ilex aquifolium English holly Photo: CC BY, Nick Butcher
Ilex asprella Rough-leaved Holly Photo: CC BY, Zheng-An Wang
Ilex × attenuata Topel holly Photo: CC BY, Cedar Wood
Ilex bioritsensis Aquifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, crothfels
Ilex canariensis Small-leaved holly Photo: CC0, author not stated
Ilex cassine Dahoon Photo: CC BY-SA, Douglas Goldman Ilex chapaensis Aquifoliaceae 
Ilex chinensis Aquifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, りなべる
Ilex colchica Black Sea Holly Photo: CC BY, Азат Кадиров
Ilex collina Mountain Holly Photo: CC BY, Laurel Meredyk all 64 ›Names & registers
Also known as Ilex cinerea var. faberi. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.50_114.375, lapse-corrected +83 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.