Kingdom: Plantae
(Unranked): Angiosperms
(Unranked): Eudicots
(Unranked): Rosids
Order: Celastrales
Family: Celastraceae
Genus: Euonymus
Species: E. japonicus
Binomial name: Euonymus japonicus
Common name: Japanese spindle tree
Euonymus japonicus is a native of Japan, Korea and China and is only found in the North Island. It is classed by Biosecurity New Zealand as an unwanted organism. Its habit is on banks, waste places, coastal areas, roadsides and shrubland.
It is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 2–8 m tall, with green stems and opposite, shiny green oval leaves 3–7 cm long with finely serrated margins.Some young leaves can be yellow. The flowers are inconspicuous, greenish-white and 5 mm diameter. Its inflorescence has 5-many flowers, each with four green petals. Its fruit is a rounded capsule that opens to expose an orange aril. Its dispersal is by seed.
Young yellow leaves.
Leaves have a finely serrated margin.
The underside of a leaf.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
