I have found this mystery tree in the woods on my land in TN. The berries look like dogwood but the leaves and bark do not. Can anyone identify it?
Thanks for the reply Michael but can you be more specific. There are about 150 kinds of Euonymus. I found three wild Euonymus americanus also known as the 'American strawberry-bush' or 'hearts-a-burstin' and are from the Celastraceae (bittersweet Family). I had already bought one of them and later I found the other three. That is why it is important to know for sure of this one's type. I have seen several other euonmyus types that I would like. I don't want to hunt and buy something that is already growinf free.
Fruits with small number of seeds should point to a small number of species. Eastern North American weed E. alatus for instance.
Thanks for the reply but I don't think it is an Euonymus alatus. I have complied a list of at least 65 Euonymus varieties but believe the tree is an Euonymus atropurpureus. I do not have photos of all and I complied the list from three different web sites even though I looked many of them up in independant searches and landed on many other sites. Sometimes photos are from summer or back dropped by other trees and the lighting makes it hard to compare. I was looking in the book titled "Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee" by Margie Hunter and found a photo of one on page 289. The detailed trunk and limb description help to convince me. Then at the web link listed is another photo of the same kind and is very convincing too. http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/image/e/euat3-frdistant56185.htm Another euonymus site with quite a few photos is: http://plants.usda.gov/java/imageGallery Just type euonymus in the scientific name box and you get 3 pages of thumb nails to click on for a larger view. Thanks again to those who helped with the narrowing down process.
I am not sure that it is Euonymus atropurpureus. First you will have to wait to check the colour of the flowers next year, but mainly this site...... http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/euat3.htm clearly shows the seed capsules containing several seed.
I will check the flower color next year if I can remember to. This tree is in full shade surrounded by mostly maples with some hickory and privit to keep the area thick and not viewable unless effort is made. According to Margie's book the flowers should be out in June or July and be dark red to purple. That kinda looks like the visible seed hulls that are in my original submission photo. I agree that some of the photos on the Vanderbuilt link looks like the bright pink hearts a burstin euonymus (and not the atropurpureus) which I have 3 of and are blooming / seeding at the same time as this one photo taken November 23, 2008. I wonder if the Vandy photos are taken of the same tree because the photo of theirs that I referenced look like a larger tree. For the record, I have had an email response from a native TN nursery "Growild" who states my tree photo is the atropurpureus, and Margie the book author has responded via email after seeing the photo and agrees that it is the Euonymous atropurpureus. Still, I will wait for flowers. Would you like a copy of the 65 vareities I have compiled for your records or research? I attempted to attach it in text format.
