Euonymus acanthocarpus Franch.

Deciduous shrubs, erect or ascending, 2-3(-8) m tall; branches and twigs sturdy, brown or gray. Petiole 1-2 cm; leaf blade leathery, oblong, oblong-elliptic, or elliptic, 7-12 × 3-5.5 cm, base subrounded, rounded, cuneate, or attenuate, margin irregularly crenulate to crenate, apex acuminate or acute; lateral veins 5-8 pairs, disappearing before reaching margin. Peduncle 6-10 cm, typically more than 3 × dichotomously branched, many flowered; pedicel 4-6 mm. Flowers 4-merous, small, 6-8 mm in diam.; sepals suborbicular; petals yellow-green, obovate, base attenuate. Disk rounded. Filament 2-3 mm. Ovary densely prickled; stigma long. Capsule brown-red, nearly globose, 1-1.2 cm in diam., 4-lobed, densely prickly, prickles 1-2 mm. Aril orange. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Aug-Nov.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Myanmar].

Forests, woodlands; 700-2000 m.

Echinocarpus erythrocarpus H. Léveillé; Euonymus acanthocarpus var. laxus (Chen H. Wang) C. Y. Cheng; E. acanthocarpus var. longipes (Lace) Blakelock; E. acanthocarpus var. scandens (Loesener) Blakelock; E. acanthocarpus var. sutchuenensis Franchet ex Loesener; E. laxus Chen H. Wang; E. longipes Lace; E. tengyuehensis W. W. Smith; E. theifolius Wallich ex M. A. Lawson var. scandens Loesener.

Euonymus acanthocarpus is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae. It is endemic to China. It has a scattered distribution in forest habitat.

This species is a shrub which can reach 8 meters tall, but is usually not more than 2 or 3. It has leathery leaves and inflorescences of many flowers. The flower is yellow-green and 6 to 8 millimeters wide. The fruit capsule is covered in prickles and contains seeds with orange arils.