Osmanthus fragrans Lour.

Cultivated especially for its fragrant flowers. Fruit is rarely formed.

Widely cultivated for the perfume of flowers. Varieties based on flower color are only cultivars.

Small trees or shrubs. Leaves elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, up to 15 cm long, 5 cm broad, entire or serrate, coriaceous; petiole c. 1.5 cm. Flowers rarely terminal, very fragrant. Calyx minute. Corolla nearly divided to the base, lobes oblong. Drupe c. 1.5 cm long, ellipsoid.

Trees or shrubs 3-5(-10) m, glabrous. Petiole 0.8-1.2 (-1.5) cm; leaf blade elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 7-14.5 × 2.6-4.5 cm, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, margin entire or usually serrulate along distal half, apex acuminate; midrib and 6-8(-10) primary veins adaxially impressed and abaxially raised. Cymes fascicled in leaf axils, many flowered; bracts broadly ovate, 2-4 mm. Pedicel 4-10 mm. Calyx ca. 1 mm. Corolla yellowish, yellow, or orange, 3-4 mm; tube 0.5-1 mm. Stamens attached to middle of corolla tube; connective elongated into an obscure mucro. Drupe purple-black, ellipsoid, oblique, 1-1.5 cm. Fl. Sep-Oct, fr. Mar. 2n = 46*.

Distribution: Temperate Himalaya, 1200-2200 in. from Gurwhal to Sikkim, China, Japan; cultivated elsewhere, rarely in Pakistan.

* Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan.

Olea fragrans Thunberg ex Murray, Syst. Veg. ed. 14, 57. 1784; O. ovalis Miquel; Osmanthus longibracteatus H. T. Chang; O. macrocarpus P. Y. Bai.