We have finally decided that this is the correct species for this Osmanthus. Nat Bradford, a student at Clemson University had an internship at Longwood Gardens and collected seed from an Osmanthus armatus there and grew them off. He then shared one with me. It is identical to this plant. Jim Porter was a dear plant friend in Columbia, SC, and had a large plant of this growing in his garden which was obviously a female. Periodically he had seedlings volunteering all over his yard. These leaves have the most incised edges of any Osmanthus that I have ever seen. It flowers like the genus with white fragrant flowers in the fall. But one would probably plant this selection for its foliage value rather than its flowers. It does well in full sun to part shade. It has to get somewhat larger than O. fragrans before it begins to flower.
