Wildflower Wednesday: Euonymus americanus

Euonymus americanus is displaying its gorgeous ripened fruit in my garden. The stems and leaves are deer candy and I count myself lucky to have any of the brilliant red fruit on the shrub this fall.

photo taken at Edwin Warner Park

 Strawberry bush/Hearts-a-bustin' is a delicate, airy deciduous shrub that can grow to 10' tall under ideal conditions. Which means it's closer to 5 foot in my garden. It is native to wooded slopes, moist woodland and creek or river areas, and is found in a variety of soil conditions ranging from sandy to clay. The typical range is from New York coast all the way south and across Texas and inland to the midwest from all those points. (source)

 5 green petals which frequently have a reddish tinge

If a plant were to be chosen just for its bloom, Strawberry bush might not make the cut. Most people are under awed by the Spring flowers, in fact, they might even miss them. They are tiny and pale with 5 green petals that have a reddish tinge. In order to see them you are going to have to get quite close, which might mean getting down on your knees, since they're only 1/2 inch wide! I think they're worth crawling around on the woodland floor to see.

as they ripen they look like strawberries and give rise to one of its common names~Strawberry bush. 

The flower which is pollinated by small flies, ants and other pollinators produces  gumdrop-sized, bumpy green fruit that ripens from green, to pale pink and finally to a rich red in late summer. The  deep red fruit are thought to resemble strawberries.

MOBOT photo

As they open to reveal scarlet seedheads, the capsules split into heart shaped segments thus giving rise to another common name, Hearts-a-bustin.

Day-Glo orange arils dangle like bright ornaments

The understated and too often underappreciated Euonymus americanus is not invisible once those dangling dayglo seeds burst into the spotlight and when its leaves take on their fall coloring, a  translucent white, washed with shades of red and orange.

The inconspicuous flowers attract small bees and flies.

I love this marvelous semi evergreen native with its spindly branches, its unusual spring flowers, its developing strawberry fruits, and its gorgeous hearts-a-bustin' open ripe fruit.

...and I appreciate its wildlife value. The inconspicuous flowers attract small bees and flies. The foliage is eaten by moth caterpillars. The aril covering the seed is very attractive to birds and small mammals and is a great source of fat and sugar for these animals (source). Birds that have been observed include the Northern Flicker, Brown Thrasher, Catbird, Eastern Bluebird, Cardinal, and Eastern Towhee. (Source: Morton Arboretum). Visiting birds help spread the seeds to new locations. 

This gardener thinks it's time for more nurseries to offer this striking native shrub to gardeners who appreciate the different and unusual.
xoxogail

The particulars
Botanical name: Euonymus americanus
Common Name: strawberry bush, hearts-a-bustin
Phonetic Spelling  yoo-ON-ih-mus a-mer-ih-KAY-nus
Type: Deciduous shrub
Family: Celastraceae
Native Range: Eastern United States. The typical range is from New York coast all the way south and across Texas and inland to the midwest from all those points.
Zone: 6 to 9
Height: 4.00 to 6.00 feet
Spread: 4.00 to 6.00 feet
Bloom Time: April to May (Zone7a)
Flower: Not a flashy flower, Green to greenish-yellow with purple stamens
Fruit: Showy in fall
Leaf: Pale fall leaf color. Looks great in a woodland garden
Sun: Part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Wildlife value: Birds, small flies and bees 
Comments: Will grow in clay soil, tolerates black walnuts, Deer candy. Poisonous, plant away from children who might be tempted by their strawberry looks.
Suggested Use: Hedge, Naturalize. It will set seed and in ideal conditions could form a thicket.

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Please add your url to Mr Linky and leave a comment. 
 
Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

A Wildflower Celebration With: A Few Wildflowers, One Shrub, A Tree and a Garden View

Cumberland Rosemary/Conradina verticillata

A rare native found growing on the gravelly river banks where it is seasonally flooded then gets dry all summer! Sounds like a marriage made in Clay and Limestone heaven. But, just to be on the safe side~Cumberland Rosemary has lived its entire life in a container where he can get exactly the conditions needed to bring this rosemary lookalike to bloom. The leaves are fragrant and can be a substitute for rosemary in the kitchen~Not gonna happen, though, to a rare and endangered plant! (endemic TN and KY)

Hypoxis hirsuta

This is an adorable and diminutive plant of the lily family. It resides under the Grey Owl Juniper near the side entrance to Chez Cedar~where I can see it everyday. It's planted in gravelly soil~That's to keep the rodents from eating the corm! The little bees visit for pollen. It's native to the Eastern half of North America~except Florida and those very hot and dry states out west.

Geranium maculatum 'Espresso'

Pale lavender flowers accompany the chocolate/espresso foliage. I love the species but, this beauty brings a pop of color contrast that disappearing purple heucheras can't! G. maculatum is found in open woods throughout the Eastern US. It can make a sweet ground cover if given enough moisture and good drainage.

Senecio aureus

Golden Ragwort is a member of the Happy Trinity of Spring plants in the front gardens~it's a fairly aggressive colonizer in moist situations. I enjoy the green with purple rosettes all winter and thoroughly love that it creates a huge mass of bright yellow flowers each spring. It is shade tolerant. Little bees, flies and small skippers visit it. Another Eastern North American native~This one loves Florida, but not LA!

Phlox pilosa and Senecio aureus

Phlox pilosa is the Practically Perfect Pink Phlox that I refer to frequently. It's a marvelous plant. I've shared it with gardeners on the East and West Coasts, the Midwest and Central South! It's even in a Florida garden. That's one of the characteristics that makes it so perfect! It's a trouble free plant with a two month long bloom time and fragrant pink flowers. This plant is a bee and butterfly magnet. It grows in shade, sun and in between. That's why it's practically perfect! Like most of the plants I grow this one is also native to the Eastern and central US.

Euonymous americanus

Strawberry Bush is strictly an Eastern US native understory 'shrub'. It's deer candy in the woodlands where it's endemic! Most people are under awed by the Spring flowers, but, I like them. They are tiny and pale. The real payoff is each fall when the fruit pods split open revealing dangling seeds and the mystery of why they have the common name Hearts-A-Bustin! It's visited by bees.

Chionanthus virginicus

Fringe Tree, Old Man's Beard, or Grandfather's Whiskers are common names for Chionanthus virginicus. I love it, but, cannot look at it in bloom without thinking how my favorite author, Elizabeth Lawrence, wrote that it reminded her of coleslaw! This is a slow grower~Seriously slow! If you get one, buy the largest one your budget can afford! I found this one at the Cheekwood Wildflower Fair~I immediatly brought it home. It's native to the Southeast, Northeast and Central South states. Give it a try~It's harder to -30 degrees.

The Garden of Benign Neglect

There were more blues then pinks in the GOBN this Spring. It's time for PPPP to rejuvenate itself...The flooding rains, the droughts and my sharing too many large pieces of it have left the garden bare. Do not despair~The GOBN will be back in the pink by next Spring....I see offspring everywhere and I can move plants from the front garden back there! I will say~The columbine and Phlox divaricata had a stellar year.

I am so glad you stopped by to help me celebrate wildflowers this week. Please take time to visit all the fantastic bloggers who have participated. Several are new to me and I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting their posts. You long time readers and visitors know how very much I appreciate each and everyone of you!

May all your flowers bloom beautifully this Spring.

xxoogail


Check these out if you want to see the entire series:
Let's Celebrate Wildflowers This Week (here)
The Wildflower and The Bee (here)
Wildflower Wednesday:Phacelia bipinnatifida (here)
Into Every Wildflower Garden A Little Rain Must Fall (here)




This post was written by Gail Eichelberger for my blog Clay and Limestone Copyright 2011.This work protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.