Hi Dave,
You're asking about the one from the Lu Shan Snow thread. I took that pic on 11-16-12.
I think stefanb8 gave me the right answer, "its a mature form of Osmanthus heterophyllus"
Here is a pic of a rooted cutting from the same plant. As you can see the foliage reverted back to the jeuvenile form.
I saw a pic of O.h. 'Myrtifolius' on an Esveld site and it doesn't look like mine.
{{gwi:282932}}

Looks like a typical O. heterophyllus. As with English hollies the teeth are a browsing defense and may be present to a lesser extent - or entirely absent from - leaves above browsing height.

So, I had always wondered whether they revert back to spiny when grown from mature spineless foliage. Now I know. How do they 'know' to do that?

I mean if you root mature citrus cuttings, they will bloom and be less thorny than juvenile foliage of the same variety (from seed).

But I've also seen Osmanthus heterophyllus hedges that were very spiny. I suppose the constant cutting back is eliminating the more mature spineless foliage?

This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 7:50

In other plants showing the same behavior the two types of foliage have been differentiated as sterile and fertile, because the change into another shape of leaf is associated with the presence of flowers or cones. So I imagine hormones start being generated after a time that cause the foliage to change - same as when a rooted side-branch or a specimen that has been cut off low stops growing as a branch and starts producing upright growth.

Fascinating. I've always wondered about this too. But I suppose some clones are selected either because they never change, like 'Sasaba', or they convert and cuttings remain stable in others. Funny thing is as spiny as 'Sasaba' is, the immature straight species is worse.

My supposed straight-species O. heterophyllus is about 9' tall now, and I've been waiting for it to "convert" lol. It bloomed like crazy this fall, for the first time ever. I might have posted once that I didn't think O. heterophyllus was fragrant. Well, on an individual flower basis, yes O. X fortunei is much more fragrant. However, the big O. heterophyllus is noticeable.

David, when your heterophyllus bloomed it still didn't convert to spineless foliage?

Nope. Maybe I should examine it more closely to be sure but I certainly haven't spotted anything but spines. It and 'Sasaba' didn't really start blooming until they were almost 6' tall, so that was about 2-3 years ago. 'Sasaba' is very open and spindly and grows more slowly it's been in the ground 3 more years, while the O. heterophyllus is filling in and almost exceeding 1' per year now.

But until this year they bloomed pretty sparsely. This year the species was so intense it looked whitish from a distance, and, like I said, you could smell it as you started walking towards it. I can't wait for my O. X fortunei to reach that size, as, like I said the individual florets are more powerfully scented in that one.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 7:34

Gotta say that 'Sasaba' doesn't really float my boat. Perhaps a more mature plant has some good form and merit, but those spines! Goodness.

My O. x fortunei (standard form) started blooming about 4 years after I put it in. It now stands about 8 feet high. It really only blooms in the top 1/3 of the plant and bloomed very well this Fall.

I have another one, could be 'Fruitlandi', as best I can figure -- with smaller leaves. It blooms with creamy, apricot-scented flowers rather than pure white flowers and was really covered with blooms.

Both are wonderfully fragrant. But neither are exhibiting spineless leaves yet.

This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 7:49