Plant Image Data Base                                         

      Euonymus alata

                                                           Burning Bush or Winged Euonymus

• Form
  • large-sized deciduous shrub
  • cultivars are usually smaller (8' by 8', or less, making them medium-sized shrubs), and often this shrub is kept to an even smaller size by shearing, irrespective of its specific genetic character
  • upright vase growth habit in youth, becoming spreading rounded and horizontally layered with age (if rarely or never pruned)
  • slow growth rate
• Culture
  • full sun to full shade; best performance in full sun to partial sun
  • prefers moist, well-drained, slightly acid soils but is very adaptable to various soils, soil pHs, soil compaction, drought, periodic shearing, and pollution (and is therefore urban tolerant)
• Foliage
  • fall color is a brilliant flaming red in sunny sites or a faded pink-red in shady sites, yielding a consistent and often spectacular Autumn display
• Assets
  • brilliant red fall color
  • ornamental winged stems (on the species form and some cultivars)
  • vase shape in youth and layered horizontal branching at maturity (if unpruned)
  • takes well to pruning and shearing
  • urban stress tolerant
• Purpose
  • Burning Bush is a shrub noted for its excellent flame-red Autumn coloration and its ability to be easily sheared into hedge form.
• Summary
  • Euonymus alata is a tough but over utilized landscape shrub primarily found as the cultivar 'Compacta' in mass plantings or as a formal hedge, widely known for its brilliant red autumnal display, and lesser known for the bold-textured corky stems that have Winter appeal on the underutilized species form.

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