Ilex is the generic name for most of the nearly five hundred different species commonly known as holly, of which the best known is the species Ilex aquifolium, with spiny leaves and bright red berries. Somewhat confusingly, when Frodo and Sam encounter ilex in Ithilien, this is not apparently a reference to holly. Rather, this seems to be Quercus ilex, the holm-oak or 'holly-oak', which is unrelated to actual holly (though its leaves look somewhat similar, hence its name).
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