Osmanthus heterophyllus (holly osmanthus)

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Osmanthus heterophyllus, photographed by Marco Mussita — fig. a Marco Mussita, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-12-06 / obs. 171742181

Osmanthus heterophyllus, photographed by Judy Gallagher — fig. c Judy Gallagher, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 102791528

Osmanthus heterophyllus, photographed by Jacy Chen — fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104875621

Osmanthus heterophyllus, photographed by Timur Kalininsky — fig. f Timur Kalininsky, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 100643097

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 5 botanical countries

Native distribution of Osmanthus heterophyllus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.

Region	TDWG code	Continent
Japan	JAP	ASIA-TEMPERATE
Korea	KOR
Nansei-shoto	NNS
Taiwan	TAI
Vietnam	VIE	ASIA-TROPICAL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 63 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

Olea aquifolium Siebold & Zucc.
Olea aquifolium f. cuneata Miq.
Olea aquifolium f. subintegra Miq.
Olea aquifolium var. cuneata (Miq.) Miq.
Olea aquifolium var. ilicifolia (Hassk.) Dippel
Olea aquifolium var. myrtifolia (G.Nicholson) Dippel
Olea aquifolium var. rotundifolia (W.Bull) H.Jaeger
Olea aquifolium var. subintegra (Miq.) Miq.
Olea ilicifolia Hassk.
Olea rotundifolia (W.Bull) Entleutner
Osmanthus acutus Masam. & T.Mori
Osmanthus aquifolium (Thunb.) Siebold
Osmanthus aquifolium f. subangustatus Makino
Osmanthus aquifolium unranked variegatus-nanus J.Dix
Osmanthus aquifolium var. argenteomarginatus (Bean) L.H.Bailey
Osmanthus aquifolium var. argenteus C.K.Schneid.
Osmanthus aquifolium var. atropurpureus C.K.Schneid.
Osmanthus aquifolium var. aureovariegatus (Mouill.) L.H.Bailey
Osmanthus aquifolium var. aureus C.K.Schneid.
Osmanthus aquifolium var. ilicifolius (Hassk.) G.Nicholson
Osmanthus aquifolium var. myrtifolius (G.Nicholson) G.Nicholson
Osmanthus aquifolium var. purpureus Bean
Osmanthus aquifolium var. rotundifolius (W.Bull) G.Nicholson
Osmanthus aquifolium var. variegatus Standish

and 39 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.