View allAll Photos Tagged Fragrant
Nymphaea odorata (fragrant water-lily) blooming in the Native Flora Garden. Photo by Michael Stewart.
Osmanthus fragrans is treasured for its tiny but amazingly sweet-smelling flowers. For more information on fragrance gardens, visit Gardening in a Minute.
This plant was in my old garden and though I moved a lot of plants here, I did not move this one. The people who bought our old house were tearing out the flowers beds and my friend and former next-door neighbor rescued the peonies. She kept some and gave me some and they have thrived here with more sun than they had before!
In the basket there are strings of mixed flowers, Chevvanti and very fragrant jasmines for which Madurai is famous .
The size of the basket and flowers can be guessed by comparing with the vendor's hands holding it.
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OSMANTHUS
Greek osma = English fragrant
Greek anthos = English flower
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Osmanthus, native from the Himalaya (where it is found at 1,200–3,000 m above sea level) to China, Indochina and south Japan, was formally described by João de Loureiro, a Portuguese Jesuit Missionary, whose book Flora Cochinchinensis, published in 1790, included descriptions of plants from Cochinchina (in southern Vietnam), China and Mozambique.
However, it was introduced to Europe in the middle of the 19th century by Jean Marie Delavay, a French Botanist. During his tour in China, Delavay studied and described over 4000 species of plants, at least 1500 of which were unknown before. Osmanthus was one of those plants.
Osmanthus delavayi and a few other plants were named after the Botanist.
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Osmanthus fragrans has a long history of use in herbal medicine, and is used in perfumery and as a flavoring. The flowers are used to make a scented jam and tea (hence its common name, Tea Olive). In traditional herbal medicine, a decoction of the stem bark is used to treat boils and carbuncles. The essential oil has insect-repelling properties.
This starts blooming in September-October, continues through the winter, sometimes as late as April or May of the following year.
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Blooming scented flowers in a potted plant.
Osmanthus fragrans
Family Oleaceae
Vendor's display, The Harry P. Leu Gardens, Orlando, Florida, USA.
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Day six
Location: Mysore
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Okochi Sanso Garden, 8-3 Sagaogurayama Tabuchiyamacho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto 616-8394, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Fish Fragrant Eggplant Celery, sunflower seeds, tomato basil, fried garlic. ($12)
Mission Chinese
New York, New York
(November 10, 2012)
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