King ex C.B.Clarke
Description
Osmanthus suavis King ex C.B.Clarke is an evergreen shrub or small tree of the olive family endemic to the eastern Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Myanmar (158 GBIF occurrences). It grows in the understorey and margins of temperate broad-leaved and mixed conifer forest, on slopes, ridges and forest edges roughly between 2400 and 3500 m. It was documented in Bhutan along the Thimphu-Chu at 2800 m in April and in eastern Nepal at Gupka Pokhari around 3200 m, also in April, its flowering coinciding with the spring warming of the mid-montane forest belt.
It forms a densely branched shrub with grey, lenticellate bark. The leaves are opposite, coriaceous, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, the margins entire or sparsely spinulose-serrate, glossy dark green above and dotted with minute glands beneath. The fragrant flowers are small and clustered in short axillary fascicles or cymes; the corolla is white to cream, gamopetalous with four spreading lobes united into a short tube, bearing two stamens, and the whole shrub is sweetly scented in flower, as the epithet suavis records. The fruit is an ovoid drupe ripening blue-black, with a single hard-walled stone.
Osmanthus belongs to tribe Oleeae and is centred on East and Southeast Asia, with O. suavis representing the Himalayan extension of this largely Sino-Japanese genus, allied to the fragrant cultivated O. fragrans. Its scented insect-pollinated flowers and drupaceous bird-dispersed fruits are typical of the genus. While not formally threatened, it is dependent on intact temperate forest and is locally valued as an ornamental and for its aromatic blossoms.
Author: King ex C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Oleaceae monograph (Green revision of Osmanthus)