Belfast Botanic Gardens Tree Archive
This is one of a series of short articles about trees and shrubs in the Belfast Botanic Gardens compiled by the Friends group.
Family: Oleaceae
Osmanthus x burkwoodii (Burkwood & Skipwith) P.S.Green
Burkwood osmanthus or hybrid sweet olive
>54o 34.936N
5o 55.976W
Osmanthus x burkwoodii is an attractive slow-growing shrub, eventually reaching 3 to 4m in height. It has glossy leaves and very sweetly-scented white flowers in spring.
O. x burkwoodii is a hybrid between the Chinese O. delavayi and the Turkish O. decorus. It was raised in England in about 1930 by Burkwood and Skipwith. It received an Award of Garden Merit from the RHS in 1984. Originally thought be a bi-generic hybrid and given the name x Osmarea burkwoodii because its parent O. decorus was in the genus Phillyrea (making it a hybrid between two genera). Since reclassification of Phillyrea, the name was changed to the above.
