Ilex cookii

Ilex cookii (English common name: Cook's Holly) is an endangered Stechpalmenart, which is endemic to Puerto Rico. Named after the botanist is the kind Melville T. Cook, in 1926, the holotype collected.

Description

Ilex cookii is a shrub or small tree up to seven meters reaches a height of two to three, in rare cases. The smooth trunk has a diameter of 13 centimeters. The light brown bark is covered with lenticels. The 2.5 to 4.5 centimeters long and 1 to 1.8 cm wide leaves are elliptic or oblong -elliptic, entire, smooth and halbledrig. The leaf blade is sharp or pointed at the apex and narrowed or rounded at the base. The glossy upper leaf surface is dark green, the lower leaf surface is bright green with tiny black dots. The petioles are 2-3 mm long. The few flowers hanging on thin stalks. are 3 to 5 mm long. The four to five about 0.5 mm long sepals are either rounded or blunt. The four to five white petals are 1.5 mm apart. The spherical drupes have a diameter of 4 mm and four chambers. It is believed that Ilex cookii, similar to other holly species is dioecious. Male flowers have never been discovered.

Habitat

The habitat of Ilex cookii are elves forests at altitudes above 830 m. Elven forests are evergreen mountain forests, which are dominated by dwarf widely branched trees with a height up to five meters. Stems, branches and leaves are covered with bromeliads, mosses and other epiphytic plants. Causes of dwarfism are roundworms, soils with low nutrient content, poorly trained root systems and poor groundwater supply. The average monthly temperature is 18.3 ° C and the annual rainfall 250 cm.

Status

The species is widely dispersed only by a full-grown shrub with four Wurzelschösslingen from Cerro de Punta, as well as some young plants and cuttings known in the Toro Negro State Forest on the summit of Monte Jayuya.

The reasons for the rarity of this plant are probably in the destruction of the habitat by the construction of telecommunications masts at Cerro de Punta. Other reasons are the roads and trampling of vegetation.