Species
+

Ilex cornuta Lindl. & Paxton

Chinese holly, Chinese holly, Chinese holly, Horned holly, Horned Holly

Climate known 52 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ilex cornuta, commonly known as Chinese holly or horned holly, is a slow-growing, densely foliaged evergreen shrub in the Aquifoliaceae plant family. It is native to eastern China and Korea and attains a height of about 3 metres (9.8 ft). The leaves are usually 5-spined, between 3.5 cm and 10 cm long, oblong and entire. The fruits are red berries, which are larger than those of the European Holly.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ilex cornuta”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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 ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Holly”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Aquifoliaceae
Described by
Lindl. & Paxton
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central +2
Wild records
169 in range· 56 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1478mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 232 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1478 mm a year, wettest June at 232 mm, driest December at 43 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ilex cornuta f. gaetana Loes.; Ilex cornuta f. longipedunculata S.Y.Hu; Ilex cornuta f. typica Loes.; Ilex cornuta var. fortunei (Lindl.) S.Y.Hu; Ilex coronaria var. angustifolia Reissek and 5 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1141 mm of 1478 mm) falls in March to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.9 °C against a yearly mean of 16.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1478 mm a year, wettest June at 232 mm, driest December at 43 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1478 mm a year at the habitat, 1141 mm of it March to September. Wettest month June at 232 mm, driest December at 43 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1204 mm to 2068 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -3.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.8 °C, the absolute minimum -14.7 °C, about 32 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.9 °C to 5.5 °C), warmest day 31.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 8 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1478 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 151 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -14.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-14.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–34RH 57–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 151 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 4–1110 / 6–1314 / 10–1621 / 14–2225 / 18–2728 / 22–2931 / 26–3331 / 27–3227 / 24–2922 / 19–2417 / 13–1911 / 7–13
Night °C1 / -2–62 / -1–66 / 3–912 / 8–1517 / 13–1921 / 18–2325 / 22–2624 / 23–2620 / 18–2215 / 13–179 / 6–123 / 0–8
Rain mm67 / 34–9476 / 44–120122 / 57–185128 / 79–241146 / 95–270232 / 166–339216 / 148–317176 / 139–296121 / 82–19980 / 52–11171 / 50–9343 / 28–59
DLI16 / 14–1819 / 15–2224 / 18–3029 / 23–3632 / 28–3731 / 28–3534 / 31–3632 / 30–3327 / 26–2923 / 22–2518 / 17–1917 / 14–18
RH %59 / 55–6360 / 56–6460 / 57–6461 / 58–6462 / 59–6564 / 62–6964 / 61–7164 / 61–6862 / 61–6459 / 58–6158 / 56–6157 / 55–61

Each figure is the median across the 151 grid cells holding the 169 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1188:5887 (30.575, 114.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 151 distinct grid cells holding the 169 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1188:5887 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_114.375, lapse-corrected -7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 22 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Korea· introduced: California, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.274, 120.173 · in the densest population, 109 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 169 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 56 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 128 km away. 1640 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 169 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ilex cornutaIlex cornutaIlex cornutaIlex cornutaIlex cornutaIlex cornutaIlex cornutaIlex cornuta

Photographs: (c) winston12345, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Benjamin Burgunder, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Grace Merkert, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Brandon Corder, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ilex cornuta, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A Convenient Microdilution Method for Screening Natural Products Against Bacteria and Fungi
Joanna R. Zgoda, John R. Porter (2001) · Pharmaceutical Biology
New Triterpenoid Saponins from Ilex cornuta and Their Protective Effects against H2O2-Induced Myocardial Cell Injury
Shanshan Li, Jianping Zhao, Yanli Liu, Zhong Chen (2013) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Guignardones A–C: Three Meroterpenes from Guignardia mangiferae
Wei Yuan, Min Liu, Nan Jiang, Zhi Kai Guo (2010) · European Journal of Organic Chemistry
Triterpenoid glycosides from leaves of Ilex cornuta
Qin Wenjuan, Wu Xiue, Zhao Junjie, Yoshiyasu Fukuyama (1986) · Phytochemistry
The effects of leaf size and microroughness on the branch‐scale collection efficiency of ultrafine particles
Cheng Huang, Ming-Yeng Lin, Andrey Khlystov, Gabriel G. Katul (2015) · Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
Fertilizer, Irrigation and Root Ball Slicing Affects Burford Holly Growth after Planting
Edward F. Gilman, Thomas H. Yeager, Diane Weigle (1996) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Ilex cornuta leaves extracts ameliorate hyperuricemia by modulating uric acid transporters
Yucheng Mao, Xu Hongliang, Pengguo Xia (2024) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Effects of Container Dimension and Volume on Growth of Three Woody Ornamentals
Gary J. Keever, G. S. Cobb, R. Bruce Reed (1985) · HortScience
Measurement of Direct Heat Injury of Roots of Three Woody Plants1
Dewayne L. Ingram, D. W. Buchanan (1981) · HortScience
Two triterpenoid glycosides from leaves of Ilex cornuta
Tsutomu Nakanishi, Hiroko Terai, Masao Nasu, Iwao Miura (1982) · Phytochemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ilex 9 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.