Euonymus fortunei
| Euonymus fortunei | |
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| Climbing stem on a tree, with leaves | |
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| Species: | E. fortunei
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| Binomial name | |
| Euonymus fortunei | |
Euonymus fortunei, also commonly known as winter creeper or wintercreeper and Fortune's spindle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to east Asia, including China, Korea, the Philippines and Japan.[1] It is named after the plant explorer Robert Fortune.
Description
It is a woody evergreen shrub which grows as a vine if provided with support. As such it grows to 20 m (66 ft), climbing by means of small rootlets on the stems, similar to ivy (an example of convergent evolution, as the two species are not related). Like ivy, it also has a sterile non-flowering juvenile climbing or creeping phase, which on reaching high enough into the crowns of trees to get more light, develops into an adult, flowering phase without climbing rootlets.
The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 2-6 cm long and 1-3 cm broad, with finely serrated margins. The flowers are inconspicuous, 5 mm in diameter, with four small greenish-yellow petals. The fruit is a four-lobed pale green pod-like berry, which splits open to reveal the fleshy-coated orange seeds, one seed in each lobe.
Varieties
There are two or three varieties:
- Euonymus fortunei var. fortunei (syn. var. acutus). China, Korea
- Euonymus fortunei var. radicans (Sieb. ex Miq.) Rehd. (syn. E. radicans). Japan
- Euonymus fortunei var. vegetus (Rehd.) Rehd. Northern Japan (Hokkaidō), doubtfully distinct from var. radicans (Bean 1973)
Range
It has an extensive native range, including many parts of China (from sea level to 3400 m elevation), India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.[1] It resembles Euonymus japonicus, which is also widely cultivated but is a shrub, without climbing roots.[2] It also is related to a variety of similar species, including Euonymus theifolius, or Euonymus vagans and also a number of named "species" which are found only in cultivation and better treated as cultivars.[1]
Cultivation and uses
It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, with numerous cultivars selected for such traits as yellow, variegated and slow, dwarfed growth. It is used as a groundcover or a vine to climb walls and trees. The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-
Plants propagated from mature flowering stems (formerly sometimes named "f. carrierei") always grow as non-climbing shrubs. Some popular cultivars such as 'Moon Shadow' are shrub forms.
Most of the cultivated plants belong to var. radicans (Huxley 1992). It is generally considered cold hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9, and is considered an invasive species in some parts of the world, notably the eastern United States[6][7] and Canada.[citation needed]
Gallery
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The fruit -
The variegated cultivar 'Emerald 'n Gold' -
References
- ^ a b c "Euonymus fortunei (Turczaninow) Handel-Mazzetti". Flora of China.
- ^ "Euonymus japonicus Thunberg". Flora of China.
- ^ http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=2915
- ^ http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=764
- ^ http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=2916
- ^ "Profile for Euonymus fortunei (Turcz.) Hand.-Maz. var. radicans (Siebold ex Miq.) Rehder (winter creeper)". PLANTS Database. USDA, NRCS. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
- ^ Swearingen, J., K. Reshetiloff, B. Slattery, and S. Zwicker. (2002). "Creeping Euonymus". Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas. National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Bean, W. J. (1973) Trees and Shrubs hardy in the British Isles 8th ed., vol. 2: 150-151. John Murray.
- Huxley, A., ed. (1992) New RHS Dictionary of Gardening vol. 2: 242. Macmillan.
- Pink, A. (2004). Gardening for the Million. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
External links
