fortune's spindle
Euonymus fortunei
It uses thousands of tiny adventitious rootlets along its stems to scale sheer brick walls and tree trunks.
- Scientific name
- Euonymus fortunei
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Celastrales › Celastraceae › Euonymus
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- increasing
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Forest floors, woodland edges, and urban landscapes.
- Diet
- Photosynthetic (sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide).
- Range
- China, Japan, Korea, North America, Europe
- Size
- Climbing vine up to 20 meters long, or a spreading groundcover.
- Lifespan
- 20-50 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- In its native range, habitat loss; in introduced ranges, it is treated as an invasive weed and actively managed.
- Safe to approach?
- Safe to touch but highly toxic if ingested. Keep pets and children from eating the leaves or berries. If ingested, seek medical or veterinary care immediately.
Euonymus fortunei (common names spindle or Fortune's spindle , winter creeper or wintercreeper ) is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to east Asia, including China, Korea, the Philippines and Japan. It is named after the plant explorer Robert Fortune.
Photo: Melissa McMasters, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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