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American Olive

Cartrema americana

Also called American Devilwood, American Wild Olive, Devilwood, Wild Olive

American Olive
Photo: claytonsnatives, CC BY 3.0

American olive (Cartrema americana) is an evergreen shrub or small tree from the southeastern United States and northeastern Mexico, formerly named Osmanthus americanus. It is grown for its fragrant early-spring flowers and is well suited to moist, well-drained sites in mild climates.

Family
Oleaceae (Olive family)
Grows as
Tree, Shrub
Light
Part shade, Full sun
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then once the soil partly dries; avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Moist, well-drained loam or sandy loam; tolerates a range of soils.
Temperature
15–30 °C; hardy to about -12 °C; protect from hard frost.
How easy
Easy

About

Cartrema americana, commonly called American olive, wild olive, or devilwood, is an evergreen shrub or small tree native to southeastern North America, in the United States from Virginia to Texas, and in Mexico from Nuevo León south to Oaxaca and Veracruz.

Cartrema americana was formerly classified as Osmanthus americanus. Following the discovery that Osmanthus was polyphyletic, it was transferred to the segregate genus Cartrema together with Osmanthus floridanus and five Asian species.

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cartrema americana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

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