Euonymus americanus L.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Euonymus americanus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/euonymus/euonymus-americanus/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Common Names

  • Strawberry Bush

Glossary

aril
Fleshy outgrowth produced at the base of a seed (as in e.g. Taxus). Often acts to attract animal seed-dispersal agents.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
prostrate
Lying flat.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Euonymus americanus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/euonymus/euonymus-americanus/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

A deciduous shrub up to 6 or 8 ft high, of upright or straggling habit, not downy in any part; twigs four-angled. Leaves of firm texture, glossy, narrowly oval to lanceolate, long-pointed, wedge-shaped at the base, shallowly toothed; 1 to 4 in. long, 13 to 114 in. wide; stalks 112 in. long. Flowers 13 in. diameter, greenish purple, with five rounded, distinctly clawed petals; produced about midsummer singly or in threes on a slender stalk 12 to 34 in. long. Fruits 12 to 34 in. diameter, red, three- to five-lobed, covered outside with prickly warts; aril scarlet.

Native of the eastern United States; cultivated in 1683, according to Aiton, but rarely seen. In my experience it rarely bears fruit in this country. It is distinguished among euonymuses by its spiny-warted fruits, and by having the parts of its flower in fives. The only other cultivated species uniting these two characters is E. obovatus, a prostrate plant with thin, dull green, obovate, short- pointed leaves.


var. angustifolius (Pursh) Wood

Leaves narrow-lanceolate, one-fourth to one-fifth as wide as long.