After long-term planting, natural hybridization and artificial breeding, osmanthus fragrans has produced many cultivated varieties. Through further investigation and arrangement, 32 osmanthus fragrans varieties were preliminarily identified. As far as color is concerned, there are Jingui, Yin Gui and Dangui. From the leaf type, there are willow leaf laurel, golden leaf laurel, dripping yellow, sunflower leaf and firewood handle yellow; As far as the flowering period is concerned, there are eight laurels, four seasons of laurel and beautiful months. At present, there is no unified variety classification in China. It is customary to divide osmanthus fragrans into the following four varieties: Jingui, Yin Gui, Dangui and Sijigui. Four Osmanthus fragrans varieties groups have been formed: Sijigui variety group, with shorter plants and more buds, and the flower fragrance is not as good as that of Yin Gui, Jingui and Dangui, and the flowers are lemon yellow or light yellow. There are four varieties of Cinnamomum cassia and Cinnamomum cassia. Flowering in all seasons, there are varieties such as "Gui Yue", "Nissin Osmanthus fragrans", "Big-leaf Buddha Dingzhu" and "Four-season Osmanthus fragrans". Yin Gui Variety Group: It blooms in autumn, and its color is pure white, milky white, yellow white or light yellow. The varieties are broad-leaved seed Yin Gui, willow Yin Gui, hard leaf Yin Gui, seed Yin Gui, Jiulong Yin Gui, early Yin Gui, late Yin Gui, Baijie Yin Gui and Qingshan Yingui. Jingui Variety Group: Flowering in autumn, with lemon yellow to golden yellow flowers. The varieties are Dahua Jingui, Dayehuang, Huangchuan Jingui, Late Jingui, Round Leaf Jingui, Xianning Late Jingui, Qiugui, Bianyuan Jingui, Willow Sugui, Jinshigui, and Boye Jingui. Osmanthus fragrans variety group: it blooms in autumn, and its color is dark, orange yellow, orange yellow, orange red to vermilion. The varieties are "cinnabar Dangui", "big leaf Dangui", "small leaf Dangui" and "tooth Dangui".

Overview of ancient classification:

Osmanthus fragrans is a precious and ancient tree species that our people love very much. Since Qin and Han Dynasties, people in all dynasties have studied the classification of osmanthus fragrans.

In the Song Dynasty, Chen Jingxin's Monument to the Ancestor of Fang Quan (1256) collected a passage from Erya, a calligraphy book between Qin and Han Dynasties: "Wood, osmanthus leaves are osmanthus. The flowers are pale white, the ones with reddish flowers are called osmanthus, and the ones with yellow flowers are fertile. Between the clustered rocks. " It can be seen that osmanthus fragrans was named long ago, and it has aliases such as osmanthus fragrans and osmanthus fragrans. There are three colors: light white, light red and yellow. Among them, there is only one reddish one called Dangui. Osmanthus fragrans with yellow flowers can bear seeds.

In the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen introduced the varieties of osmanthus fragrans in detail in the book Compendium of Materia Medica (1578): "Osmanthus fragrans, commonly known as Osmanthus fragrans. Its flowers are named white Yin Gui, yellow Jingui and red Dangui. There are autumn flowers, spring flowers, four seasons flowers and Chinese rose flowers. " It is further clarified that osmanthus fragrans can be divided into three varieties: Yin Gui, Jingui and Dangui. At the same time, it is pointed out that there are many varieties of osmanthus fragrans, which can bloom in autumn, spring, all year round and every month.

In the Qing Dynasty, in Chen Zi's "Flower Mirror" (1688) and other agricultural books, in addition to the commonly known "Yingui", "Jingui" and "Dangui", there were two varieties named according to different flowering periods, and it was pointed out that there was also a kind of osmanthus fragrans with rich flowers.

It can be seen that the ancients mainly classified osmanthus varieties according to the two characteristics of color and flowering period.

Overview of modern classification:

Since 1990s, according to the traditional classification principle, Chinese scholars refer to the requirements of international nomenclature of cultivated plants: "When a species, interspecific hybrid or intergeneric hybrid contains multiple cultivated varieties, a series of similar cultivated varieties can become a variety group". Therefore, osmanthus fragrans can be divided into four species groups in advance, namely, rat tail group; The flowers are milky yellow to golden yellow and bloom in autumn. Odor group; The flowers are milky yellow to lemon yellow, gradually turn silvery white after flowering, and bloom in autumn. The osmanthus group has orange-yellow or orange-red flowers, which bloom in autumn. Semperflorens Group; Flowers are milky yellow to lemon yellow, and there are flowers in autumn, winter and spring. Chinese scholars have done a lot of work on the classification of osmanthus fragrans varieties.

The scientific research data of Shanghai Yang, Jiangsu and Henan Zhu Changshan are as follows:

(1) In China Flower Classic, Yang (1990) divided the cultivated osmanthus fragrans in East China (mainly in Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai) into 12 varieties according to the four indicators of flowering period, color and branches and leaves;

(2) Liu Yulian (1992) put forward a five-level standard for the classification of osmanthus fragrans varieties in the first special issue of osmanthus fragrans in China. The first criterion: osmanthus fragrans is divided into four seasons osmanthus fragrans and autumn osmanthus fragrans according to the flowering season; The second standard: divided into silver laurel, golden laurel and osmanthus by color; The third criterion: according to the morning and evening of flowering, it is divided into early-flowering osmanthus and late-flowering osmanthus. The initial flowering period is in late August; The late flowering period is around 1 October1(referring to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River); The fourth criterion: according to the degree of ovarian development, it can be divided into normal development and abnormal development (referring to whether it can bear fruit). The fifth criterion: classification according to the characteristics of vegetative organs. According to the above five criteria, 15 osmanthus fragrans varieties were classified.

(3) Zhu Changshan et al. (1995) in the second special issue of Osmanthus fragrans in China, based on the color and flowering habit of Osmanthus fragrans, classified Osmanthus fragrans into four groups: Jingui, Yin Gui, Dangui and Sijigui. Taking the characteristics of fruiting after flowering as the secondary standard; Taking the morphological characteristics of leaves as the three-level standard; Morning and evening flowering is the fourth criterion. Therefore, there are four varieties of osmanthus fragrans in Henan province, with a total of 18 varieties.