Euonymus japonicus
Poisonous plant
NPPA pest plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Japanese spindleberry
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
Green, White
Detailed description
Much branched evergreen shrub or small tree up to 7m high. Twigs green, terete or slightly 4-ribbed, smooth, often wrinkled when dry, not winged. Leaves opposite, obovate to elliptic, acute, crenate, 2.5~7cm long; petiole 5~15mm long. Cymes 5, many-flowered, pedunculate, dichotomous. Buds greenish, slightly 4-angled; flowers 4-merous, 6~10mm diam.; petals green, broadly elliptic, widely separated. Capsule globose, 4-celled, pink, 6~10mm diam., exposing orange to deep red aril after opening. (- Webb et al., 1988)
Similar taxa
Much branched evergreen shrub or small tree up to 7m high; twigs green, smooth, often wrinkled when dry; leaves opposite 2.5-7cm long; buds greenish; petals green; fruit capsule pink, 6-10mm diameter, exposes orange to deep red seed appendages after opening (Webb et al., 1988).
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Flowering
November, December
Fruiting
March, April, May
Year naturalised
1980
Origin
Japan, China, Korea
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial.
Other information
Poisonous plant
The spindle berries and orange coated seeds are poisonous.
Etymology
euonymus: One possible explanation is this genus is named after Euonyme, the mother of the Furies (vengeance deities in Greek mythology) because of the irritating properties of this plant. Another explanation is that the name is simply from the Greek eu ‘good’ and onoma ‘name’, meaning ‘a name of good repute’.
japonicus: From Japan
National Pest Plant Accord species
This plant is listed in the 2020 National Pest Plant Accord. The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) is an agreement to prevent the sale and/or distribution of specified pest plants where either formal or casual horticultural trade is the most significant way of spreading the plant in New Zealand. For up to date information and an electronic copy of the 2020 Pest Plant Accord manual (including plant information and images) visit the MPI website.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
EUOJAP