Warty-barked spindle is a shrub that's easy to recognize by its young branches, which are densely covered in small corky warts. It isn't native to the United States; it grows wild across Europe and Asia, as far east as Japan. Its tiny purplish-brown flowers give way to yellowish to red fruits that split to show black seeds in orange coats.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Young branches are thickly covered with corky warts, the easiest way to tell it apart from other spindle trees.
- Growth form
- A dense, rounded deciduous shrub reaching 6–10 ft (2–3 m).
- Leaves
- Opposite, oval to lance-shaped leaves 1–2½ in (2.5–6 cm) long, finely toothed and pointed, on very short stalks. In fall they usually turn pink.
- Flowers
- Small purplish-brown flowers about ¼ in (6 mm) across, with four petals, hang in groups of usually three on slender stalks about 1 in (2.5 cm) long.
- Fruit
- Rounded yellowish to red capsules about ½ in (1 cm) across split open to reveal black seeds wrapped in an orange .
Look-alikes
burning bushEuonymus alatus
Burning bush has broad, corky wings along its stems. Warty-barked spindle has small warts instead of wings.
Why they get mixed upBoth are spindle-tree shrubs with corky growths on the stems.
Where it lives
- Range
- Native from central Europe through western and northeastern Asia, including Korea and the Russian Far East, to central Japan. It is not native to the United States.
Name and classification
- About the name
- In Korea and northeastern Asia it has also gone by Euonymus pauciflorus or E. verrucosus var. pauciflorus; current classifications treat these as the same species.
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