Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Winged burningbush

WINGED BURNINGBUSH

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Euonymus alatus (Thunb. ) Siebold

Riley County, Kansas

Height: Shrubs, to 6 feet

Family: Celastraceae - Staff Tree Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Also Called:

Oriental spindle-tree.

Trunks:

Stems erect; bark gray, smooth or furrows shallow, ridge flat; wood white or yellowish white, hard.

Twigs:

Green, sometimes tinged purple, rigid, usually 4-angled, usually with 2-4 prominent, irregular brown corky wings, glabrous; leaf scars crescent-shaped; buds green to purplish green or brown, ovoid, .08 to .12 inch, apex acute, scales glabrous.

Leaves:

Deciduous, opposite, simple; stipules caducous, linear, .02 to .06 inch; petiole 0 to .08 inch; blade elliptic to oblanceolate, 1 to 3.2 inches long, .2 to 1.2 inches wide, base cuneate to tapered, margins serrulate with teeth strongly incurved, apex acuminate, surfaces green, glabrous.

Flowers:

Inflorescences axillary on new growth, flowers 1 or cymes, 2-3-flowered; peduncles .2 to 1.2 inch, glabrous; pedicels .12 to .24 inch, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals 4, distinct, green, broadly ovate, .02 to .04 inch; petals 4, distinct, greenish yellow, ovate, .08 to .12 inch long, .08 to .12 inch wide; disk obscurely 4-lobed, green; stamens 4; pistil 1, ovary superior, 4-locular, embedded in disk; style absent; stigma entire.

Fruit:

July-November; capsules, dark brown to purplish brown, valves deeply lobed nearly to base, often with 1-3 valves aborted, individual valves ovoid, .2 to .28 inch long, .12 to .16 inch, smooth; seed 1 per locule, brown to purplish tan, ellipsoid to nearly globose, .12 to .16 inch long, .08 to .14 inch, smooth; aril orange to yellowish orange, completely surrounding seed.

Habitat:

Disturbed woodland and forests, urban woodlots, stream banks, roadsides, old fields, thickets.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Naturalized

Comments:

Euonymus alatus is native to eastern Asia. It is a popular ornamental, prized for its bright red to reddish-purple fall foliage and colorful, interesting fruits. Unfortunately, birds consume the fruits and disperse the seeds. It is widely naturalized in the eastern United States and was first documented in the wild in Kansas in 1980. It appears to be spreading rapidly in woodlands in eastern Kansas and should be expected in additional counties.

Winged burningbush stem wings