Angyo Compact Tea Olive. I noticed this selection in one of the many "consignment" nurseries where we shop at in Japan. It was immediately obvious that it was more compact than any other cultivar of Osmanthus fragrans with which I was familiar. One of our Japanese companions translated the name tag as something like "compact Osmanthus." The cultivar name, 'Angyo Compact' is my name. Angyo is the nursery area just outside of Tokyo. The leaves are somewhat smaller than most other cultivars, and the growth habit seems to be about half of that of the species. It is by no means dwarf, but it is definitely more compact than the species. It also has the same white fragrant flowers of the species flowering throughout the winter here in the Deep South. Using the Chinese monograph on the species Osmanthus fragrans, I cannot come to a definitive conclusion as to the cultivar; although, several compact forms are identified. The pictures of one has a plethora of berries, meaning of course that it is a female selection. But none of ours have set any fruit, so I am supposing that this is a male cultivar. It does have anthers, but not in the typical number seen on most male selections, and of course the flowers have no pistil. This is a first offering of this selection.
Zones 7-9
Check out our Osmanthus Care Guide.
