It is a woody evergreen vine, growing to 20 m tall, climbing by means of small rootlets on the stems, similar to ivy . Like ivy, it also has a sterile non-flowering 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 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 :
*''Euonymus fortunei'' var. ''fortunei'' . China, Korea.
*''Euonymus fortunei'' var. ''radicans'' Rehd. . Japan.
*''Euonymus fortunei'' var. ''vegetus'' Rehd. Northern Japan , doubtfully distinct from var. ''radicans'' .
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.
Cultivation and uses
It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, with numerous cultivars selected for such traits as yellow, and slow, growth. It is used as a groundcover or a vine to climb walls and trees.
Plants propagated from mature flowering stems 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'' . It is generally considered cold hardy in 5 to 9, and is considered an invasive species in some parts of the world, notably the eastern United States.
References and external links
*Bean, W. J. . ''Trees and Shrubs hardy in the British Isles'' 8th ed., vol. 2: 150-151. John Murray.
*Huxley, A., ed. . ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening'' vol. 2: 242. Macmillan.
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