This hybrid between O. delavayi and O. decorus was raised by Messrs Burkwood and Skipwith of Kingston-on-Thames. It is an evergreen with downy young shoots and shortly stalked, oval to ovate leaves 1 to 2 in. long, slightly toothed, glabrous, leathery, dark, rather glossy green. Flowers white, fragrant, borne in terminal and axillary clusters of six or seven, opening in April. Tube of corolla about 3⁄16 in. long, with lobes nearly as long as the tube.
Until one of the parent species, O. decorus, was recently transferred from the genus Phillyrea to Osmanthus, this plant was treated as a bigeneric hybrid with the generic name Osmarea.
O. × burkwoodii is very hardy, rather slow in growth, but dense and bushy, and as such is a useful and attractive evergreen and hedge-plant.