Olive family spreads its fragrances and thorns

We lack the dry, Mediterranean climate and punishing sunshine that support the growth of true olives around here. It is too cold, wet (normally) and humid to sustain such ventures. Autumn does bring a couple of olives by name to the fore though -- the sweet olive and the autumn olive. One is desirable and one is a bit of a pest. One is named for its family and its fragrance, and the other is named for its resemblance to the true olive.

Osmanthus, the sweet olive is wonderfully fragrant in autumn. A member of the olive family or Oleaceae, Osmanthus translated from the Greek means fragrant (osme) flower (anthos). The sweet olive is Osmanthus fragrans, leaving no doubt about its primary characteristic.

Most Osmanthus have small white flowers set against lustrous evergreen leaves. They make a fine subject for screens and shrub borders and for planting beneath the shade of taller trees. They form a dark backdrop against which to view fiery autumn foliage and, of course, contribute their sweet scent.

During occasional, brutal winters in the South, the sweet olive has been known to endure serious damage, but this is a rarity. So treasured is the scent of the sweet olive that it was planted extensively in temple gardens of China, its country of origin, where the dried flowers were also used to scent tea. In the colder climates of North America, sweet olive was often treated as a cool greenhouse subject. Plants would be kept out of doors in pots usually sunk in beds of sand until cold weather, when they were brought indoors to scent the greenhouse.

There are other species and varieties of Osmanthus that may be encountered in gardens in the South. Devilwood is a native species, blooming in the spring and later decorated with purple-black fruits. The difficulty in working its

fine-grained wood gave rise to its name.

Holly-leaf Osmanthus is often mistaken for its look-alike, holly. To tell the two apart, remember that Osmanthus leaves are always opposite each on other on a stem, and holly leaves alternate. Otherwise you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. The leaves of holly-leaf Osmanthus are just as prickly as those of holly. There are dozens of varieties of holly-leaf Osmanthus. Aureomarginatus, variegatus and Goshiki all offer some form of variegation, in speckles, margins or streaks. Rotundifolius has round edged leaves without spines.

Gulf-tide is a vegetable barbwire. Purpureus has purple-black new growth that appears shellacked. All eventually mature in the 8-to-10-foot range.

The name Eleaeagnus is also from the Greek, elaia the olive and agnos the chaste tree. The species are variously referred to as Russian olive, autumn olive and Oleaster, all references to olive-like qualities. We don't run into Russian olive much around here. Autumn olive, considered an invasive, is sometimes encountered.

The eleaeagnus that dominates in these parts is thorny eleaeagnus, and I do mean dominates. It has spread to the point where it is just about ubiquitous. If you have ever had the pleasure of trying to remove it you will understand its unofficial trade name, ugly agnus. Thorns as long as your thumb line the towering stems that may wave 10 feet above the previous year's growth. The thorns may hook over any support they come in contact with.

Because of its ability to form impenetrable thickets, it has been taken up as a highway landscape subject. In such impossible situations as precipitous highway ramps, it fills space nicely and doesn't invite anything in to join it.

The fruit and the flowers of eleaeagnus are what make it olive-like. The small flowers are dull cream, tan or plain white. They are small, funnel-form and flare to four points that are borne in dangling clusters. The perfume of these flowers is sweet and pervasive and one of the few redeeming characteristics of the plant. The fruits are yellow green changing to a dull speckled red and loved by birds. Seeds sprout where birds perch, often in trees and other shrubs where the eleaeagnus sprouts and proceeds to use the tree for support, eventually engulfing it.

Eleaeagnus has the capacity to fix nitrogen in nodules in its roots much like members of the bean family. Because of this, it has the ability to thrive on wasteland and is sometimes promoted as a plant for soil reclamation. The fruit of autumn olive is also being explored as a source of lycopene, valued as an antioxidant. The fruit is edible, just not very tasty.

It is interesting how two plants so widely divergent in character end up as features in the autumn landscape under the banner of "olive." One could hardly be more accommodating and desirable; the other can become a rampant weed. Both smell as sweet.

■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening @wsjournal.com.