Holly Osmanthus (False Holly)
Osmanthus heterophyllus · Oleaceae · 구골나무
How to spot it
Resembles hollies (Ilex), but is told apart by its opposite leaves, unlike the alternate leaves of hollies.
Look
- Leaves
- Leathery elliptic simple leaves 2.5 to 8 cm long, glossy dark green, with smooth margins or 1 to 4 pairs of spiny lobes.
- Flowers
- Small white tubular flowers bloom from late autumn to winter, with a strong, sharply sweet fragrance.
- Fruit
- An egg-shaped drupe 1 to 2 cm long, bluish purple-black to black, ripening the year after flowering; hard to see in cultivation.
- Bark
- Twigs are pale gray to yellowish-brown with many tiny lenticels.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native (Korean Peninsula)
- Native to
- Native to Taiwan, Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
- Ecology
- Tolerates alkaline soil, air pollution, dryness, heat and city conditions.