Pittosporum tobira         Rhamnaceae

Japanese Mock Orange, Mock Orange, Tobira, Japanese Pittosporum                pi-TOS-po-rum to-BI-ra

• Evergreen shrub or small tree, dense, erect habit and rounded, to about 15 ft (5 m) tall, similar width.  Leaves alternate, simple, obovate, 3-10 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, leathery and tough, base wedge-shaped, apex rounded, margin revolute (turned under), dark green and glossy above, midrib pale.  Flowers cream-white becoming yellow, about 2.5 cm wide, fragrant (orange blossom), several in terminal clusters, blooms heavily.  Fruit a capsule, pear shaped, about 13 mm across, green then brown.
• Sun to part shade.  Not fussy about soil type as long as its well-drained.  Tolerates pruning, good as a screen or hedge, very tolerant of maritime conditions.  Heavily used in the southern US and southern Europe.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 8   Native to China and Japan.
• Several cultivar are listed, including:
  • Cream de Mint™  (‘Shima’)  -  glossy mint green leaves with cream-white edges, slow growing to 2-2.5 ft high and wide, compact.
  • Turners Pitt™  (‘Turners Variegated Dwarf’)  -  dwarf, compact, spreading, leaves with creamy variegated edges, to 30 inches (75 cm) tall and 2-3 ft (0.6-0.9 m) wide.
  • ‘Variegata’  -  gray-green leaves with irregular cream-white margins, small fragrant flowers, to 5-10 ft (1.5-3 m) high and wide.
  • ‘Wheeler's Dwarf’  -  dwarf habit, 2-3 ft high and 4-5 ft wide, mounding, compact, leaves somewhat smaller, dark green.
• tobira: native name.
• Oregons State Univ. campus: west side of Gilfillan Auditorium, in small courtyard.