Euonymus echinatus Wall.

Grows in moist shady forests, climbing or trailling on trees and docks.

This is one of the most complicated and variable species in the section. Euonymus scandens appears to be conspecific; however, the type is without flowers and fruit, making a definitive determination impossible.

A climbing shrub with dense tufts of adventitious roots; shoots quadrangular. Leaves variable. 0.8-6.5 x 0.6-2.5 cm, ovate or oblong-lanceolate, acute, crenate, subcoriaceous, glabrous; main lateral veins 8-10 pairs; petiole up to 6 cm long. Flowers greenish, in short axillary cymes. Calyx lobes rounded, entire. Petals 4 mm long, greenish-white, orbicular, crenulate. Stamens shorter than the petals. Capsule globose, c. 8 mm in diameter, covered with dark coloured spines, stalk 5-6 mm long; seeds enclosed in a scarlet aril.

Evergreen or semievergreen shrubs, scandent, 2-3 m tall; branches and twigs slender, striate, angulate, brown or gray-brown when dry, sometimes black. Petiole short, ca. 3 mm; leaf blade thinly leathery, ovate, ca. 5 × 2-3 cm, base cuneate or truncate, margin sparsely serrate, apex acute or acuminate; lateral veins 6-8 pairs, sometimes impressed adaxially and prominent abaxially, disappearing before reaching margin. Peduncle 2-3 cm, 1-3-flowered; pedicel ca. 1 cm. Flowers 4-merous, 6-8 mm in diam.; sepals small, semirotund; petals orbicular, attenuate at base, greenish yellow. Capsule red when fresh, brown when dry, nearly globose, ca. 10 mm in diam., densely prickly, prickles 1-2 mm. Aril bright orange. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Sep-Jan.

Himalaya (Kashmir to Sikkim).

Distribution: Temperate Himalayan tracts of Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim from 1500-3000m.

Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand].

2000-2700 m

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Forests, scrub; 1300-3500 m.

Euonymus arboricola Hayata; E. fungosus Ohwi subsp. chinensis P. S. Hsu; E. mupinensis Loesener & Rehder; E. scandens Graham; E. subsessilis Sprague; E. trichocarpus Hayata.