Fontanesia

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{speciesbox

|image = Fontanesia fortunei - Vue générale.jpg

|display_parents = 2

|grandparent_authority =

|genus = Fontanesia

|parent_authority = Labill.

|species = phillyreoides

|authority = Labill.

}}

Fontanesia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, usually treated as comprising a single species Fontanesia phillyreoides, though some authors split this into two species (see below). It is native to southern Europe (Sicily), southwestern Asia (Lebanon, Syria, Turkey) and eastern Asia (China), with two well-separated populations.Flora of China: [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=112917 Genus Fontanesia page], [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=210000542 Fontanesia phillyreoides species page]{{GRIN | Fontanesia philliraeoides | 214 | accessdate = 19 January 2018}}Flora Europaea: [http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/feout?FAMILY_XREF=&GENUS_XREF=Fontanesia&SPECIES_XREF=&TAXON_NAME_XREF=&RANK= Fontanesia][http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=fontanesia+phillyraeoides Altervista Flora Italiana, Fontanesia phillyraeoides Labill.] includes many photos

It is a deciduous shrub growing to 8 m tall. The leaves are opposite, lanceolate to narrow ovate, 3–12 cm long and 8–26 mm broad, with an acute apex and a usually entire margin, sometimes finely serrated. The flowers are white, with a deeply four-lobed corolla; they are produced in panicles 2–6 cm long. The fruit is a flat samara, surrounded by a wing.

There are two subspecies,Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan {{ISBN|0-333-47494-5}}. often treated in the past as separate species.Bean, W. J. (1978). Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles 8th ed., vol. 2. John Murray {{ISBN|0-7195-2256-0}}. Despite the distance separating the two, the differences between them are minimal; the leaves of subsp. phillyreoides are sometimes cited as having finely serrated margins, but this character is not reliable.

• Fontanesia phillyreoides subsp. phillyreoides. Italy, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon. Leaves up to 8 cm long, dull green above.
• Fontanesia phillyreoides subsp. fortunei (Carr.) Yalt. (syn. F. fortunei Carr.; F. phillyreoides var. sinensis Debeaux). China (Anhui, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shandong, Zhejiang). Leaves up to 12 cm long, glossy green above.

The species epithet was originally published erroneously as "philliraeoides", but this is a correctable error, because it refers to the genus Phillyrea.