Plant: Burning Bush
 

Name: "Eastern Wahoo" "Euonymus" Euonymus atropurpureus	Description:shrub or rarely a small tree with spreading, irregular crownand red or purple capsules suggesting a burning bush. Height: 20' (6m) Diameter: 4" (10cm) LEAVES: opposite; 2-4 1/2" (5-11cm) long, 1-2" (2.5-5cm) wide. Elliptical; abruptly long-pointed at tip; finely saw-toothed. Green above, paler and oftern with fine hairs beneath; turning light yellow in autumn. BARK: gray; smooth, beoming slightly fissured. TWIGS; dark purplish-brown, slender, sometimes 4-angled or slightly winged. FLOWERS: 3/8" (`10mm) wide; with 4 dark red or puprle petals: 7-15 flowers clustered on slender, widely forking stalks; in late spring and early summer FRUIT: 5/8" (15mm) wide; red or purple capsules deeply 4-lobed and 4-celled, each lobe splitting open; smooth; several hanging on slender stalk; maturing in autumn, remaining attached into winter; in each cell, 1-2 rounded light brown seeds with red covering. HABITAT: Moist soils, especially in thickets, valleys, and forest edges. RANGE: Extreme S. Ontario to central New York, south to N. Georgia, west to central Texas and north to SE. North Dakota; to 2000' (610m). (National Audobon Society Field Guide to Trees)	Discussion: The powdered bark was used by American Indians and pioneers as a purgative. "Wahoo" was the native term. The Latin species name, meaning "dark purple" refers to the color of the fruit. (National Audobon Society Field Guide to Trees)
Image:	Location: N 39° 36.730 W087°  41.447	Map:

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Photos courtesy: PHS

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