365 Urban Species. #278: Burning Bush

[urbpan]

Photos by urbpan. Location: in the landscaping in front of the Brookline Water and Sewer Division.

Urban species #278: Burning bush Euonymus alata

This shrub is probably behind only rhododendron or perhaps yew in its popularity in the landscaping of Boston. Hopefully, its addition to the prohibited plants list will force more creativity into the field. There is no doubt that the autumn foliage of burning bush is spectacular, but the novelty wears off after seeing several dozen of these on a walk around the neighborhood. Most unfortunate is the fact that this plant is invasive, and has escaped cultivation in suburban woods to become a persistent nuisance. It tolerates a variety of soils and grows even in the shade, and is spread quite readily by birds, who love to feed on its attractive red fruit. Native shrubs cannot compete with it in areas where they occur. Euonymus alata is native to Asia, and is also known as winged euonymus and cork bush (for the corky wings on the stems). It now grows wild from New England to the Gulf of Mexico.

Comments

[artemii.livejournal.com]

when i was a child, burning bush was our yard's hedge.

[bezigebij.livejournal.com]

You very rarely see it around here and I think that is a shame. It shouldn't be over-used, but it is definitely a plant worth considering.

I'm wondering now where it is native and whether it could be invasive here as well...

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/alert/alrteuon.html

The link above has good information about where it's native to and where it's becoming invasive.

This site: http://www.hkolster.nl/euonymus/euonymuslijst.htm
is a Dutch Euonymus enthusiast, so there may be some useful information in there for you.

[bezigebij.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. Very interesting.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

get out of my head :) i just found and ID'ed some of this yesterday! the seed pods are really Really REALLY pretty in pinks and reds, and the scarlet seeds are amazing. mine is more ... well, tree like. it's TALL, but nothing over 3 inches thick.

pictures of pods as soon as i upload some :)

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[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Sounds like another Euonymus (maybe a variety of the same species, maybe a related species) that we have tons of at my work. The pink pods open up to reveal red seeds. Spindle-tree, we call it. It makes for pretty good perches, so I cut it down all the time.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

i keep looking for a lightning struck yew, but no such luck...

but these guys i might nickname "sling shot trees", as the things seems to be all about symmetree :) as far as i could tell, all branches were mirrored forks... binary tree? :) hah. even the leaves had this pairing going on. wacky.

lots of beech around here, but i want to find witch hazel, and some other trees too, getting harder with lack of leaves :) off to the woods.

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[urbpan.livejournal.com]

In the city it's tortured into cubes and other shapes to fit into little gaps, and it seems to do fine. The ones I find wild at work are spread out into, as you say, mirrored forks--very good for natural-looking perches.

[aplomada.livejournal.com]

Perches for what? From your icon, I guess raptors? Or do you have parrots?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Yes, raptors. Kestrel, Broad-wing, Red-tail, Screech, Barred, Great-Horned; Also: American crow, turkey vulture.

[phlogiston-5.livejournal.com]

Its been creeping into the woods in NJ, but I have only seen it on forest edges thankfully. It is still sold in NJ though. My mom bought one and I scolded her, but she planted it anyway.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

So THAT's what that shrub is! I've got one in my front bed that's sprung up and it's got the cork wings, but I hadn't taken it out because I didn't know what the heck it was.

Bugger.

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

In this area of Southwestern, Ct. it has completely dominated the understory in most of the woods because of the ease with which it spreads and the fact that the deer don't bother with it.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in fact, it's one of the few plants that my captive deer won't touch, and they eat poison ivy, garlic mustard, thistle, even cherry (which is supposed to kill them); everything except goldenrod and stinging nettles (and euonymus).

[bleppo.livejournal.com]

Years ago, I was walking with a friend in JP -- near the pond. We came across this bush with strange, ridged branches. We were so taken with it that we took a twig and brought it into a garden center and asked the man there what it was. He told us it was a Burning Bush. But this plant, I don't think, was what we found. The man at the garden center seemed none too pleased when he discovered we weren't there to buy anything, so he may well have been blathering out his hiney.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

There's a variety of burning bush that's called "winged Euonymus" which is what you probably found. The corky ridges on the branches are the "wings." There's a gulf between horticulture and botany that can be confusing and frustrating sometimes.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure (now that I re-read my original post) if I've been helpful at all--the "wild" euonymous that I usually encounter is more like a small tree than a bush.

[bleppo.livejournal.com]

I think I once found some near my dad's house -- I'll have to go look.

Winged, that's better. I couldn't think of a better description than "ridged", and that wasn't quite right.

[buboniclou.livejournal.com]

Oh I never knew it had that name, we always just called it Euonymous on our nature walks :)

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