Madeira Holly

Ilex perado is a small evergreen tree growing up to 7–10 m (23–33 ft) in height, occasionally up to 15 metres (49 ft), it is dioecious and has white to pink flowers and red toxic berries, slightly bigger than those of a common holly Its leaves are oblong, leathery dark green on top and a lighter color on the bottom and it as a smooth, grey trunk.

Ilex perado is native to the Azores, where it is found in all of the islands, the island of Madeira (mostly in the central and northern parts) and the Canary Islands in northern Tenerife, La Gomera and La Palma. It grows on steep slopes and in the bottom of ravines, in areas with moist soils. It is a common tree of laurisilva and high-altitude forests and can reach non-laurisilva stands in Madeira into the heath. There are 4 known subspecies:

I. perado subsp. perado – Endemic to the Madeira archipelago. The population is stable and is thought to be much less than 10,000 adult individuals. I. perado subsp. azorica (Loes.) Tutin (synonym Ilex azorica Gand.) – Native to all of the Azorean islands. I. perado subsp. lopezlilloi (G. Kunkel) A. Hansen & Sunding – Endemic to La Gomera. Extremely threatened subspecies with only two known specimens found in the wild. Assessed as 'critically endangered' by the IUCN. I. perado subsp. platyphylla (Webb & Berthel.) Tutin (synonym Ilex platyphylla Webb & Berthel.) – Native to La Palma, La Gomera and Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Assessed as 'vulnerable' by the IUCN. Records of the species from the Iberian Peninsula (as Ilex perado subsp. iberica) are thought to be misidentified and refer to I. …