An evergreen tree occasionally 50 to 60 ft high in Japan, rarely more than 20 ft high in this country; young shoots very stout, 1⁄3 in. in diameter, angular, not downy. Leaves very thick, dark lustrous green, oblong, 4 to 8 in. long, 11⁄2 to 3 in. wide, tapered about equally at both ends, the marginal teeth shallow and not spiny; the undersurface is rather yellow; stalk 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Fruits red, globose, 1⁄3 in. in diameter, crowded in considerable numbers on short axillary racemes. Bot. Mag., t. 5597.
Native of Japan; introduced to Europe by Siebold in 1840. Although this species is hardy at Kew it does not succeed very well. But a few miles to the south it thrives admirably in favourable situations. Sargent regarded it as the handsomest broad-leaved evergreen of Japan. It received an Award of Merit in 1952 when shown by Lord Bessborough of Stansted Park, Hants.
I. × koehneana Loes. (I. aquifolium × I. latifolia). – Leaves almost as long as in I. latifolia and similarly shaped, with more strongly spined and often slightly undulate margins.