# fortune's spindle

*Euonymus fortunei*

It uses thousands of tiny adventitious rootlets along its stems to scale sheer brick walls and tree trunks.

- **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.

## About

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.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/78c7629d-dbf7-45d2-9077-48d9f0248456
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/130893
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euonymus fortunei
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/21747897/medium.jpg (Melissa McMasters, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.