Osmanthus fragrans , variously known as sweet osmanthus, sweet olive, tea olive, and fragrant olive, is a species native to Asia from the Himalayas through southern China (Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan) to Taiwan and southern Japan and southeast Asia as far south as Cambodia and Thailand.

It is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 3–12m tall. The leaves are 7–15cm long and 2.6–5cm wide, with an entire or finely toothed margin. The flowers are white, pale yellow, yellow, or orange-yellow, small (1cm long), with a four-lobed corolla 5mm diameter, and have a strong fragrance; they are produced in small clusters in the late summer and autumn. The fruit is a purple-blackdrupe 10–15mm long containing a single hard-shelled seed; it ripens in the spring about six months after blooming.