Osmanthus fragrans
species of plant
Osmanthus fragrans (lit. 'fragrant osmanthus') is a species of flowering plant in the family Oleaceae. In English, it is sometimes referred to by the common names sweet osmanthus, sweet olive, tea olive, and fragrant olive. It is native to Assam, Cambodia, China, the Himalayas, Hainan, Japan, Myanmar, Taiwan, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. In China it grows in the provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, Hainan, and Yunnan.
In China, it is the "city flower" of the cities of Hangzhou, Zhejiang; Suzhou, Jiangsu; and Guilin, Guangxi. In Japan, it is the "city tree" of Kitanagoya, Aichi Prefecture; Kashima, Saga Prefecture; Beppu, Ōita Prefecture; and the "town tree" of Yoshitomi, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Etymology
The genus name Osmanthus is composed of two Greek etymons: osma meaning "smell" and anthos meaning "flower". The specific name fragrans is a borrowing from the Latin meaning "odorous, fragrant" referring to the intense fragrance of its flowers.
Growth
It is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 3–12 m (9.8–39.4 ft) tall. The leaves are 7–15 cm (2.8–5.9 in) long and 2.6–5 cm (1.0–2.0 in) broad, with an entire or finely toothed margin.
“Osmanthus fragrans” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Osmanthus, fragrans and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1209922. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Osmanthus fragrans” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.