Pittosporum tobira tobira, Japanese pittosporum

Our only Asian pittosporum, this shrubby beauty has glossy evergreen leaves – broader toward the tip, with margins slightly curled under – and clusters of small white flowers with the strong, sweet scent of jasmine or orange blossom (“mock orange” is a name it shares with several unrelated plants). The chickpea-sized capsules split open to reveal sticky orange seeds. Large shrubs grow at the feet of the cedars in Dohrmann Grove along Jane Stanford Way, with seedlings of nearby P. undulatum coming up at their base.

Tobira can be limbed up into a small, picturesque tree, accentuating its pleasingly dome-shaped crown and bringing the flowers to nose height; early training produces the most graceful trunks. A fulsome specimen rises above the enclosure fence south of Otero in Wilbur Hall. Sheared hedges sacrifice the attractive mounded form, but remain popular given the plant’s tolerance for sun or dappled shade. See a group around the men’s room south of Building 40. ‘Variegatum’, with white-edged leaves, is more compact and can be found south of the Post Office.

Pittosporum tobira. John Rawlings, ca. 2005

Name derivation: Pittosporum – Greek pitta (pitch) and spora (seed), referring to the sticky seed coating; tobira – the native name.