Euonymus europaeus L.
spindle tree
Much-branched glabrous, deciduous shrub or small tree up to 6 m high. Bark grey, smooth. Twigs green, quadrangular, smooth, not winged. Lvs opposite, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, acute or acuminate, crenate, usually turning red in autumn, 2-10 cm long; petiole 6-12 mm long. Cymes 2-15-flowered, pedunculate, dichotomous. Buds greenish, ± 4-angled; fls usually 4-merous, 8-10 mm diam.; petals greenish yellow, ± oblong, widely separated. Capsule 4-lobed, deep pink, exposing the bright orange aril after opening.
N.: Palmerston North, Levin; S.: fairly common in lowland Marlborough and Canterbury, also recorded for Dunedin.
Europe to Caucasia 1958
Waste places, scrubland, forest margins and hedgerows.
FL Nov-Dec FT Mar-May.
Poisonous (Connor 1977).
Spindle tree is often cultivated for the brightly coloured, ornamental frs (Fig. 53). Frs are bird-dispersed and, as a result, seedlings often appear spontaneously within gardens. The sp. is gynodioecious with both sexes represented in established wild populations [Webb, C. J., Plant Syst. Evol. 132: 299-303 (1979)].
