I'm not sure how to edit a flair but I took this I in the woods behind my parents house in eastern MD. I believe it's burning bush, but I've seen some surprising natives back here so I just wanted confirmation.
Can someone identify this and explain why?
by PirateKingKatakuri
3 Comments
If none of the stems are winged, it looks to be Wahoo
The leaves shown are rounded/ovate, still on the branches, and have short petioles. Eastern wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus) loses its leaves fairly readily by the end of fall, the leaves are much more elliptic, and the petioles go along the whole length of the leaf. Wahoo wood tends to be very straight on young bushes, much like the related strawberry bush (Euonymus americanus), this plant has bendy stems. All these observations together make me think this particular plant is most likely a burning bush (Euonumus alatus).
Winged euonymus tends to retain some leaves on young saplings through the winter