CELASTRACEAE • 1 67 



EUONYMUS (Tournefort) Linnaeus 

 Burning Bush Wahoo 



The burning bushes are shrubs or trees, commonly with 

 4-angled branches and opposite, entire or toothed, deciduous 

 leaves and deciduous stipules. The flowers are solitary or 

 grouped in cymes and have the structure indicated for the 

 family. The fruit is a 3- to 5-lobed capsule, which is angled 

 or winged and at maturity splits down through the middle at 

 the back of each cell. There are 2 seeds in each cavity, sur- 

 rounded by an orange or scarlet aril. 



There are about 120 species in this genus, inhabitants of 

 Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and Central America. 

 Three species are native in Illinois. 



Key to the Burning Bush Species 



Petioles of the 2 end leaves on the branches more than i4 inch 



long, mature capsules smooth E. atropurpurea, p. 167 



Petioles of the final leaves on the branches less than i/4 inch 

 long, mature capsules tuberculate. 

 Erect or ascending shrubs with ovate-lanceolate terminal 



leaves and light red capsules E. americana, p. 169 



Decumbent shrubs which root at the nodes, terminal leaves 



obovate, capsules scarlet or orange red. . . E. obovata, p. 170 



EUONYMUS ATROPURPUREA Jacquin 



Wahoo 



The Wahoo, fig. 40, is an erect shrub, or rarely a small tree, 

 up to 25 feet tall, with stems up to 2 inches in diameter and 

 green branches streaked or covered more or less with reddish 

 brown. The green, smooth branchlets are 4-angled and bear 

 oblong-ovate, elliptic, or obovate leaves li/'? to 6 inches long 

 and yi to 1^4 inches wide. The leaf blades are acuminate at 

 the apex, narrowed at the base or sometimes rounded, ser- 

 rulate or biserrulate on the margins, smooth above and finely 

 hairy beneath, and stand on petioles up to ^ inch long. 



The flowers, which appear from the last of May on into 

 early July, are maroon colored, hardly ]/\ inch across, and 

 occur 5 to 15 together in cymes arising from the axils of leaves 

 on the current year's growth. The purplish-red fruit, which 

 matures in late September and on through October, is a some- 

 what flattened, smooth, lobed capsule about j^ inch wide, made 



