General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Vine
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun
Full Sun to Partial Shade
Partial or Dappled Shade
Partial Shade to Full Shade
Water Preferences: Mesic
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 3 -40 °C (-40 °F) to -37.2 °C (-35)
Maximum recommended zone: Zone 8b
Plant Height: 10 to 50 feet or more
Leaves: Deciduous
Fruit: Showy
Other: Green to yellow pods split open at maturity, revealing 1 to 2 seeds that are covered in fleshy, reddish-orange arils
Fruiting Time: Late spring or early summer
Flowers: Inconspicuous
Flower Color: Green
Other: Greenish-yellow
Bloom Size: Under 1"
Flower Time: Late spring or early summer
Wildlife Attractant: Bees
Birds
Resistances: Humidity tolerant
Drought tolerant
Salt tolerant
Toxicity: Other: All parts of the plant are poisonous.
Pollinators: Bees
Miscellaneous: Dioecious

Image
Common names
  • Oriental Bittersweet
  • Asiatic Bittersweet
  • Chinese Bittersweet

Photo Gallery
Location: Nationale Plantentuin (Meise - Brussel - Belgium)
Location: Nationale Plantentuin (Meise - Brussel - Belgium)
Location: Gallup Park, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Date: 2020-10-16
Yellow husks open outward, but remain attached, revealing the cor
Location: Loch Raven Reservoir, Maryland
Date: 2023-11-02
Lots of this around.  Seems invasive.
Location: Botanical Garden Copenhagen
Date: 2016-12-01

Date: 2015-10-28
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2010-11-10
the laterally borne fruit
Location: Nationale Plantentuin (Meise - Brussel - Belgium)
Date: 2019-10-21
Location: Indiana  zone 5
Date: 2016-09-24
grows fast , climing a pole
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2011-07-15
the rounded summer leaves
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2011-03-25
twining on tree noxiously
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2014-01-13
vines wrapping around tree
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2014-01-13
vines twining upon tree and each other
Location: Botanical Garden Copenhagen
Date: 2016-12-01

Photo courtesy of: Tom Potterfield
Comments:
  • Posted by sallyg (central Maryland - Zone 7b) on Aug 22, 2023 1:29 PM concerning plant:
    Celastrus orbiculatus is very common in the state parks in Maryland. I also find seedlings often in my garden under shrubs. Birds apparently drop the seeds. ID of seedlings can be confirmed by the bright orange roots.
    Don't ever collect and use berries for decor in your yard, or you'll likely see seedlings later.
  • Posted by ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Feb 3, 2018 9:32 PM concerning plant:
    This horrible twining woody vine (liana) from East Asia is very invasive and rampant growing. It often kills small trees by girdling the trunks and makes itself into quite a mess wrapping around everything. Its leaves are rounded and it bears its flowers and fruit laterally, not terminally like the better American species. It can get over 40 feet long and can produce rather large vine trunks up to about a foot wide. Fortunately, the wood is very soft and it is easy to cut down. It infests open and pioneer woods being one of the ugly, messy invasive plants ruining the appearance of such forest with other invasive woody plants as Multiflora Rose, Amur Honeysuckle, wild Privets, Autumnolive, and Japanese Honeysuckle Vine. It should be exterminated from North America. (The American Bittersweet has narrower, more elongated leaves, bears flowers and fruit terminally, and usually grows less than 20 feet long.)

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