Recent advances in cartography have made available high resolution imagery for extensive areas of the Earth’s surface, freely available on the internet. The map of the fig. 1, prepared from a pancromatic image from the program Google Earth (https://www.google.com/intl/es/earth/, accessed 31 Jul. 2019), shows the traditional subdivision of Cordillera de Maigualida, an oronym apparently coined by Marrero (1964). It is a crystalline mountain chain made up of a number of more or less isolated mountains, mountain ranges and massifs, uplifted after the Amazonian orogenesis (1,7–2 Gy) in the Cuchivero geological province, that shows extensive rock outcrops of granites of the ‘Santa Rosalía group’ (Rincón & Estanga 1996), and embraces, from north to south, the Serranía de Mato (NW-SE orientation and elevations never surpassing 1500 m a.s.l.), the Serrranía de Nichare (NW-SE orientation and elevations rarely surpassing 1500 m a.s.l., never reaching 2000 m a.s.l.), the Serranía de Maigualida (N-S general orientation, and main faults oriented NE-SW), and the Serranía de Uasadi (mainly hilly, not surpassing 1000 m a.s.l., except for its northernmost part, where it scarcely reaches 1500 m a.s.l., and with the same general orientation of the Serranía de Nichare). This huge mountain complex, nearly 250 km long, and a roughly N-S extension, between 6°50′ and 4°40′ N, and 64°50′ and 65°50′ W, is the longest and one of the most extensive mountain systems of the Guayana Shield, the source of the rivers Caura, Erebato, Manapiare and Cuchivero rivers, as well as of several of the main tributaries of the Ventuari river (Huber 1995a: 21 figs. 1–16). Its highest elevation, Cerro Yudi, is located towards the north of the Sierra de Maigualida, and reaches c. 2400 m a.s.l., the surrounding highlands lying mostly between 1600 and 2200 m a.s.l. (Nozawa & al. 2010). The name Serranía de Maigualida, by the other hand, has been used on maps only recently, probably just from the 2000s. It includes the Cerro Ualipano, floristically related to the Sierra de Maigualida, and the Cerro Corobo (“Cerro Coroba” in some recent references, as Huber & Berry 1995), besides of several actually unnamed mountains and massifs.

Sierra de Maigualida, the studied area, includes extensive mountains and dissected plateaus, with several types of ombrophilous basimontane and montane forests on its slopes, and a mosaic of saxicolous vegetation, shrublands, highland low forests and tepui broad-leaved and grass-dominated meadows over ultisols, entisols, rock exposures and organic soils, only very preliminary mapped and described (cf. Huber 1995c; Rosales & Huber 1996; Huber & Rosales 1997; Riina & Huber 2003). As it is here circumscribed, it includes only the highest and easternmost portion of Serranía de Maigualida, made up of three main blocks, which are, from north to south, the Cerro Iguana (“sector noroccidental” in previous literature and herbarium labels), the Cerro Yudi (“sector nororiental”), and the Cerro Cuyuwí (“Serranía de Uasadi”).

Five species of the genus Ilex have been collected in the Sierra de Maigualida (fig. 1), above 1500 m a.s.l.: I. huberi sp. nov. (fig. 2), closely related to a species of I. sect. Vacciniifoliae Loes. from the Espinhaço range (eastern Brazil), I. maigualidensis sp. nov. (fig. 3), a species of indefinite affinities, and three species of I. sect. Guayanoilex, namely I. magnifructa Edwin (fig. 4), I. marginata Edwin, and I. retusa Mart. ex Reissek, the two former ones included within I. ser. Lateraliae Edwin.

The following descriptions consider the types of inflorescence and stigma proposed by Edwin (1965) for the Guayanan species. Despite the fact that neither stipules, nor prophylls or prophyllate bracts have been considered of taxonomic importance (Edwin 1965), cataphylls and apical buds have some diagnostic value, at least for the species of the Sierra de Maigualida. They are described in the following paragraphs and included in the key.

Ilex huberi J.R.Grande sp. nov. Type: Venezuela, Amazonas State, “dpto. Atures [mun. Manapiare]: Sierra de Maigualida, sector nor-oriental, altiplanicie disectada de granito en las cabeceras nor-orientales del río Iguana, afluente del río Ventuari”, 5°40′ N, 65°8′ W, ± 2150 m a.s.l., 24 Nov. 1989, O. Huber 13079 leg. (holo-: MYF 11255!; iso-: MO-1170816, MYF 11367!). Fig. 2.

LSID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60478843-2

Species haec, inter species generis habitu prostato et foliis coriaceis petiolo pilis minutis atque sparsis, laminis lustrosis conspicue revolutis apice acuminatis acumine indurato, valde distincta.

Decumbent and prostrate shrubs with stems elongate; ramullets striate, grayish, generally subopposite or subverticillate, 1–3 each node, the apical portions pubescent, turning glabrous when mature; cataphylls c. 1 × 0.4 mm, narrowly oblong, with involute margings, acute and extrosely folded at the apex. Leaves subimbricate, grouped towards apex of ramullets, shortly petiolate; stipules similar to the cataphylls, caducous; petioles 1.5–3 mm long, pubescent when young, turning puberulous when mature; leaf blades 1.4–1,75 × 0.4–0.55 cm, coriaceous, shiny, ochraceous to dark brown in sicco, base cuneate, margins strongly revolute, appearing oblong to long-ovate or long-obovate, apex scarecely revolute, discretely mucronate, the mucro elongate, conspicuous and indurate; epiphyll blackish when young; midvein blackish on both sides when young, conspicuously impressed adaxially, prominent to carinate abaxially; secondary venation as well as that of following orders obscure. Male inflorescences 1–3-flowered, 2–3.5 mm long, axillary, the ‘type 4’ of Edwin (1965), dark brown, with inconspicuous, pubescent bracts reduced to scales; peduncles c. 1.5 mm long; pedicels 0.75–1.5 cm long. Calyx dark brown; sepals c. 0.75 × 0.85 mm, depressed-lunate. Corolla grayish-white; petals c. 2 × 1.8 mm, widely ovate to subrotund. Stamens included; anthers c. 0.5 × 0.3 mm, oblong, yellowish.

Ilex maigualidensis J.R.Grande sp. nov. Type: Venezuela, Amazonas State, Atures [mun. Manapiare], Sierra Maigualida, NW sector, small valley along an upper tributary of Caño Iguana, 5°30′ N, 65°15′ W, 2000 m a.s.l., 28 Feb.–3 Mar. 1991, P.E. Berry, O. Huber and J. Rosales C. 4892 leg. (holo-: VEN 329798!; iso-: MO-1173805; MYF 11238!). Fig. 3.

LSID: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60478844-2

Frutices plus minusve retorquati, ramullis foliis inflorescentiis floribus fructibusque tomentosis Ilice maguirei adhuc confusa, sed stylo ac rostro fructus nullis differt.

Shrubs 1–3 m tall, more or less gnarled; diameter of branches that subtend the subterminal ramifications to 0.56 cm; young portions of ramullets angulate, tomentose, turning terete when mature, generally blackish, the apical buds perulate and tomentose; subterminal branches cinereous-creamy, slightly suberified, scarcely cicatricose; bark conpicuously striate-reticulate, its surface rugose, not detachable, with rhomboid marks. Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate; stipules 0.6–0.8 × 0.6–0.7 mm, reduced to scales, acute, thickened towards base, more or less claw-shaped; petioles 1.5–2.5 mm long, short, tomentose; leaf blades (0.6)1.2–5.6 × (0.55)1–3.6 cm, elliptic, slightly ovate, slightly obovate or subrotund, adaxially as well as abaxially tomentose, the base symmetric, obtuse to rounded, the margins revolute, discretely serrate towards apex, apex more or less asymmetric, mucronate, rounded to obtuse, rarely emarginate. Female inflorescences 2–3-flowered, 0.4–1.5 cm long (not including the flowers and fruits) tomentose, solitary or cymose; peduncles 1–5 mm long, of similar thickness as petiole subtending it; pedicels 0.45–1.2 cm long, subtended by a triangular scale-like bract, 0.3–0.7 mm long, slightly longer than wide, glabrous or puberulent towards base and margins. Female flowers 2.2–2.5 mm long; sepals 1–1.25 × c. 1.5 mm, hirsutule to tomentose, lunate to widely triangular, the apex rotund to obtuse, margins entire, apex apiculate, the apicule indurate; petals and staminodes unknown; pistil 2–2.5 × 2.1–2.25 mm, obturbinate or more or less oblate, ovary pubescent to tomentose, style not developed, stigma conspicuous, glabrous, capitate-subcoronate, more or less 4-lobulate, sometimes also capitate and coronate in different ovaries from the same plant (cf. Huber and Izquierdo 12804 leg.). Fruits pubescent to tomentose, obturbinate to ovoid when inmature, turning globose when mature, 8.5 mm long and diameter 7 mm in sicco to 1 cm in vivo, green to grayish green, turning dark purple when mature, crowned by a 1.2–1.8 mm long concrescent stigma, obturbinate; pedicels apparently not enlarging but clearly thickening, sepals persistent but, apparently, not concrescent.