Posted by
ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Dec 2, 2017 5:47 PM concerning plant:
Unfortunately, I've only seen six specimens of this species so far. Jenkins Arboretum in southeast PA has a nice, big one mostly in full sun with two younger ones next to it. Morton Arboretum in northeast IL has two young tree-shrubs in the Midwest Collection and one in the Appalachian Collection that is also still young as of October 2023. This is one of those woody plants that can be a small tree or large shrub. It is usually about 10 to 18 feet high, but can get to 35 feet in some happy site. It has pretty foliage that gets a pink or red fall color and the three to four chambered fleshy capsules are awesome. (The European Spindletree Euonymus is similar, but I would rather stay with a native plant that would be more beneficial to native wildlife and not possibly go crazy being invasive.) The Wahoo's native range is from western New York down to northern Virginia to northern Alabama to central Oklahoma up to central Minnesota. It covers all MO, IL, IN, OH, & KY. It grows about 1.5 feet/year and lives over 100 years to about 150 years. It grows in average to moist soils with a pH of around 6.5 to 7.5. Some large, diverse, conventional nurseries and native plant or specialty nurseries grow some. Like other Euonymus, it can be picked on by the white-shelled Euonymus Scale insects.
Posted by
sallyg (central Maryland - Zone 7b) on Mar 30, 2020 8:22 PM concerning plant:
My specimen is about ten years old, in a shrubby, mostly upright shape. It makes a lot of stray roots in my sandy-loam soil, with suckers coming up every few feet; that makes it easy to share. In fact, I got mine in a box from another gardener in Tennessee. The Illinois wildflower site lists a number of insects that use the flowers or foliage, but says birds are not that fond of the fruit. Fall leaf color is nice. Note the dark purple flower color- European spindle has pale (yellow green or cream?) flowers. Otherwise, the fruits of this American native look the same to me as the fruits of the European spindle- both having the smooth pink 'shells' revealing orange "berries." (E. americanus fruits are different, having bumpy, warty 'shells.')