Devilwood, Osmanthus americanus, is in the same
genus as tea-olives, but it has entire leaves rather than spiny evergreen leaves
that even look like American holly, Ilex
opaca, as in the exotic species Chinese osmanthus, O. heterophyllus, which is also know as false
holly although the leaves are opposite in tea-olives and alternate in hollies. Fragrant or sweet tea-olive, O. fragrans, is one exotic plant I currently
make an exception for due to the sweet scent of the white axillary flowers, but this may change once I catch
my devilwood in bloom so I can compare the fragrance to that of
sweet tea-olive, which is not sickeningly sweet like in Ligustrum. The Easter freeze
in 2007 prevented it from blooming for two years because it effectively pruned off all
the new shoots and blooms for that year resulting in all the energy for blooms
the next year being used to regrow the lost shoots. At least the devilwood survived the freeze unlike the fevertree, Pinckneya bracteata (Bartram) Raf., that I planted at the same time. A second native species of osmanthus is scrub olive, O.
megacarpa, which is found in peninsular