Horned Spindle

The distribution reports from Gansu and Hunan have not been confirmed; those from Shaanxi and Xizang are from local work.

Deciduous shrubs, 2-3 m tall; branches and twigs moderately slender, striate, brown or gray-brown when dry. Petiole ca. 4 mm; leaf blade thinly leathery or thickly papery, linear, oblong, or bamboolike, 7-15 cm, less than 1(-1.5) cm wide, entire length of equal width, base subrotund, margin sparsely crenulate, apex acuminate; lateral veins 8-13 pairs, invisible or disappearing before reaching margin. Peduncle slender, 3-5 cm, 1 or 2 × dichotomously branched, several flowered; pedicel slender, 4-5 mm. Flowers 4- or 5-merous, 7-10 mm in diam.; sepals suborbicular, short; petals reddish to purple, ovate, base cuneate. Ovary weakly angulate. Capsule green to brown, or yellow-brown when dry, nearly globose, ca. 1 cm in diam., with 4 or 5 long and thin wings, up to 1 cm when fully developed. Aril bright red. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Aug-Nov.

?Gansu, Henan, Hubei, ?Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [India, Myanmar].

Mixed forests, scrub; 2200-4300 m.

Euonymus cornutoides Loesener; E. cornutus var. quinquecornutus (H. F. Comber) Blakelock; E. frigidus Wallich var. cornutoides (Loesener) C. Y. Cheng; E. quinquecornutus H. F. Comber.

Euonymus cornutus is a species of flowering plant in the genus Euonymus, native to Tibet, central China and Myanmar. Its putative variety Euonymus cornutus var. quinquecornutus, called the five‑horned spindle, has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.