Osmanthus heterophyllus
Holly Tea Olive, Holly Osmanthus, False Holly
Japan
Dense, upright, rounded shrub.
Full to part sun, moist, well-drained soil. Tolerates significant pruning.
Dense growth makes it excellent for barriers, screens, or hedges. Also useful as a formal specimen plant. Seems to do well in urban settings.
Opposite, ovate to elliptic-oblong, spinose, 1 to 2.5 inches long, leathery, lustrous dark green above, yellow-green beneath with reticulate venation.
Buds are numerous, .125 to .06 long, brown-purple.
Light brown with small, raised lenticels.
White, .25 inch wide, in clusters of 4 to 5, strongly fragrant.
.5 inch long blue-black drupes, rare in cultivation. bluish purple-black
Cuttings root easily. Collect just after new growth has hardened in late spring or early summer.
'Aureomarginatus' - Yellow leaf margins.
'Variegatus' - Off-white leaf margins.
