Euonymus fortunei

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iEuonymus fortunei
Climbing stem on a tree, with leaves
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Celastrales Family: Celastraceae Genus: Euonymus Species: E. fortunei
Binomial name
Euonymus fortunei (Turcz.) Hand.-Maz.

Euonymus fortunei, also commonly known as winter creeper or wintercreeper and Fortune's spindle is a species of Euonymus native to China, Korea and Japan.

It is a woody evergreen vine, growing to 20 m tall, 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 which does not have climbing rootlets.

The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 2-6 cm long and 1-3 cm broad, with a finely serrated margin. The flowers are inconspicuous, 5 mm 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.

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).

It is named after the plant explorer Robert Fortune. The species is closely related to Euonymus japonicus, which differs mainly in being only a shrub, without climbing roots.

[edit] 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.

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 (USDA Plants Profile).

[edit] References and external links

• 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.
• Germplasm Resources Information Network: Euonymus fortunei
• Plants for a Future: Euonymus fortunei
• USDA Plants Profile: Euonymus fortunei

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