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Pittosporum tobira
Also called Cheesewood, Japanese Mock Orange, Australian Laurel, Japanese Pittosporum, Mock Orange, Victoria Box
In Singapore: Tobira, Mock Orange, Japanese Pittosporum (Grown in Singapore)
Japanese cheesewood is an evergreen shrub, species Pittosporum tobira, that can be trimmed into a hedge or grown as a small tree, and is prized for fragrant white flowers and tough, drought-tolerant foliage. It thrives in full sun to part shade and needs little care once established.
Pittosporum tobira is a species of sweet-smelling flowering plant in the pittosporum family Pittosporaceae known by several common names, including Australian laurel, Japanese pittosporum, mock orange and Japanese cheesewood. It is native to Japan (south of Kanto), China, Taiwan, and Korea, but it is used throughout the world as an ornamental plant in landscaping and as cut foliage.
This shrub is a common, drought-tolerant and fairly hardy landscaping plant. Many cultivars have been developed, including dwarf forms (such as Wheeler's dwarf) and the popular 'Variegata', which has variegated leaves. It is used for hedges, living privacy screens, and indoor and outdoor planter boxes. The stems, leaves, and dried fruits are used in flower arrangements.
P. tobira is suitable for a Mediterranean climate, but may be more sensitive than other common ornamental plants to drought-induced stress. In 2014, a study comparing the effects of drought stress of five common ornamental plants found P. tobira to be the only plant whose total dry biomass was significantly affected (noting a 19% decrease in biomass). The plant may also be useful for fire-resistant landscaping due to its high gross heat of combustion. This plant may also be associated with more damage to other plant species when it is nonnative. A 2016 analysis of 49 plant species in green spaces in Madrid found P. tobira to be among the most likely shrubs to be associated with damage to native plant species.
Although not typically considered edible, the nutritional composition of P. tobira seeds have been analyzed. The seeds are mostly carbohydrates (71.3%) while their low fat content (5.6%) means it cannot be classified as an oily seed. The high ash content may suggest the presence of considerable amounts of inorganic nutrients in this plant.
The total phenolic content was 102.7 mg gallic acid equivalents per gram (GAE/g) while the total flavonoid content was 31.62 mg of catechin equivalent per gram dry weight basis (CAE/g DW).
Common pests of this plant include various aphids, mites, and leafhoppers, the cotton cushiony scale (Icerya purchasi), and root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.). It can be attacked by the pit-making pittosporum scale (Planchonia arabidis). It is vulnerable to the fungal plant pathogen Erythricium salmonicolor, which causes galls and the dieback disease known as pink limb blight.
Weeping Pittosporum · Stiffleaf cheesewood · Lemonwood · Rusty Pittosporum · Desert Willow · Resin cheesewood · Tawhiwhi · Australian cheesewood · Cheesewood
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pittosporum tobira 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.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
