Osmanthus Lourerio

Type species: Osmanthus fragrans Lour.

Synonyms (links to GRIN): Amarolea, X Osmarea, Pausia, Siphonosmanthus

Distribution: SE Asia (China, New Caledonia)

Number of species: about 25

Description (from Flora of China): Shrubs to small trees, evergreen. Leaves opposite, simple, petiolate; leaf blade entire or serrate, usually glandular dotted. Inflorescences cymose, fascicled in leaf axils or in very short and axillary or terminal panicles; bracts 2, united at base, usually ciliate. Flowers bisexual, usually becoming unisexual and plants dioecious or androdioecious. Calyx campanulate, 4-lobed. Corolla usually white or yellowish, campanulate, cylindric, or urceolate, lobed, parted, or divided almost to base; lobes 4, imbricate in bud. Stamens 2(-4), mostly attached to upper half of corolla tube; connective usually minutely mucronate, elongated, or projecting. Ovules 2 in each locule, pendulous. Stigma capitate or 2-cleft. Abortive pistil subulate or conical. Fruit a drupe; endocarp hard or bony; endosperm fleshy; radicle erect.

Links to species lists

• Osmanthus extracted from the GRIN database
• Description of Osmanthus with a key to the species treated in Flora of China
• Species moved to Cartrema and Chengiodendron

Images

• My photos of Osmanthus fragrans, Osmanthus heterophyllus, Osmanthus insularis, and Osmanthus rigidus
• Osmanthus fragrans from Gerald D. Carr at University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Osmanthus fragrans from Desert Tropicals Home Page
• Osmanthus aurantiacus and Osmanthus heterophyllus from The Tsukuba Botanical Garden (Japan)

References

• Bai, P. Y. 1979. Some new taxa of Oleaceae from Tibet, China. Acta Botanica Yunnanica 1(1): 151-156.
• Duan, Y. & Li, W. & Zheng, S. & Sylvester, S. P. & Li, Y. Cai, F. & Zhang, C. & Wang, X. 2019. Functional androdioey in the ornamental shrub Osmanthus delavayi (Oleaceae). PLOS ONE 14(9)
• Green, P. S. 1958. A monographic revision of Osmanthus in Asia and America. Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 22(5): 439-542.
• Green, P. S. 1963. A revision of the New Caledonian species of Osmanthus. J. Arnold Arb. 44: 268-283.
• Green, P. S. 1972. Osmanthus decorus and disjunct Asiatic-Europaean distributions in the Oleaceae. Kew Bull. 26(3): 487-490.
• Guillaumin, A. 1942. Matériaux pur la flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, LXXII. Osmanthus ou Notelaea? Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 89: 231-232.
• Guo, Shi-Quan & Xiong, Min & Ji, Chun-Feng & Zhang, Zhi-Rong & Li, De-Zhu & Zhang, Zhi-Yong 2011. Molecular phylogenetic reconstruction of Osmanthus Lour. (Oleaceae) and related genera based on three chloroplast intergenic spacers. Plant Syst. Evol. 294: 57-64.
• Imkhanitskaya, N. N. 1998. The family Oleaceae in the Caucasus flora. 2. The genera Ligustrum and Osmanthus. Botanicheskii Zhurnal St Petersburg 83(10): 100-104.
• de Juana, J. I. 2015. Cambios nomenclaturales en la sección Leiolea (Spach) P. S. Green, del género Osmanthus Lour. (Oleaceae). Bouteloua 22: 28-39.
• Joshi, A. C. 1942. Structure of the gynoecium in male flowers of Osmanthus suavis King. J. Indian Bot. Soc. 21(5-6): 331-337.
• Li Y-F, Zhang M, Wang X-R, Sylvester SP, Xiang Q-B, Li X, Li M, Zhu H, Zhang C, Chen L, Yi XG, Mao L-F, Duan Y-F. 2020. Revisiting the phylogeny and taxonomy of Osmanthus (Oleaceae) including description of the new genus Chengiodendron. Phytotaxa 436: 283–292.
• Little, E. L. 1943. New names in Quercus and Osmanthus. J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 33: 8-11.
• Metcalfe, C. R. 1938. Extra-floral nectaries on Osmanthus leaves. Kew Bull. (1938): 254-256.
• Nesom, G. 2012. Synopsis of American Cartrema (Oleaceae). Phytoneuron 2012-96: 1-11.
• Rohwer, J. G. 1996. The fruits of Ligustrum regelianum and Osmanthus heterophyllus (Oleaceae). Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 118(2): 177-186.
• Sargent, C. S. 1894. Osmanthus. Silva N. Am. 6: 63-66, pl. 279, 280.
• Srivastava, S. K. & Kapoor, S. L. 1985. Revision of Osmanthus (Oleaceae) in India. J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. 6(1): 143-148.
• Stapf, O. 1929. Siphonosmathus suavis. Bot. Mag. 153: t. 9176.
• Yang et al. 2009. Phylogenetic analysis of genus Osmanthus (Oleaceae) based on matK sequence. Int. J. Automation & Computing 31(6): 9-14.

Maintained by Eva Wallander | Last updated: 2022-01-07