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Chionanthus retusus
Also called Retusa Fringetree, Tassel Tree
Chinese fringetree is a deciduous shrub or small tree from eastern Asia, grown for its fragrant white tassel-like flowers in late spring. It needs full sun to part shade and well-drained soil, and is hardy in temperate gardens.
Chionanthus retusus, the Chinese fringetree, is a flowering plant in the family Oleaceae. It is native to eastern Asia: eastern and central China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
It is a deciduous shrub or small to medium-sized tree growing to 20 metres (70 ft) in height, with thick, fissured bark. The leaves are 3–12 centimetres (1–5 in) long and 2–6.5 cm (0.8–2.6 in) broad, simple ovate to oblong-elliptic, with a hairy, 0.5–2 cm (0.2–0.8 in) long petiole. The flowers are white, produced in panicles 3–12 cm (1–5 in) long. The fruit is a blue-black drupe 1–1.5 cm (0.4–0.6 in) long and 0.6–1 cm (0.2–0.4 in) in diameter.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Chionanthus retusus 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
