Osmanthus delavayi

Osmanthus delavayi is an evergreen shrub of the genus Osmanthus native to the Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan regions of southern China and cultivated as an ornamental elsewhere.

Osmanthus delavayi was discovered by the Jesuit missionary-botanist Fr Pierre Jean Marie Delavay in the mountains near Lan-kong in Yunnan province, China, in 1890. He sent seed to the French nurseryman Vilmorin. Though Maurice de Vilmorin distributed the seed among various correspondents, only a single seed germinated. All the O. delavayi of European gardens were cloned from this one source, until George Forrest obtained further supplies of seed in China after World War I.