Euonymus fortunei (winter creeper or Fortune's spindle)

Euonymus fortunei (winter creeper or Fortune's spindle). . , Family: Celastraceae (Staff-tree or Bittersweet Family), Distribution: Winter creeper has been reported as present and invasive in most of the eastern United States and north into Ontario but is presently not officially reported in northern New England. It has been reported in about a dozen widely spread counties in West Virginia. Native to China, the plant was introduced in the early 1900s as a ground cover., Size: As a vine, winter creeper can grow some 60 feet up tall trees. As a groundcover, it is typically about 6 inches high., Habitat/Description: Winter creeper can be found in forests, forest openings, and in disturbed sites like old homesteads. It can cover ground, outcompeting native vegetation, or it can grow as a small shrub or climb trees, attaching by adventitious roots. Generally, it only flowers as a climbing vine when stems attain height and diameters of about 1 cm, which is certainly the case here. Fruits are small, beige-colored spheres that open to expose seeds covered with red-orange fleshy coverings called arils. Plants reproduce by rooting stems or by seed dispersed by birds and other wildlife that eat the arils and discard the inner portion that contains the embryo. Plants may be browsed by deer; however, they may be toxic if ingested., Ethnobotanical Uses: There are a number of cultivated varieties that are sold as ground covers but beware! They may take over your yard!