Euonymus occidentalis

Western burning bush, Western Burning Bush

Family: Celastraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Western burning bush is a California native shrub found in diverse habitats, characterized by slender branches that often climb and grow 2 to 6 meters tall. Flowering from spring to early summer, this plant produces small purple-brown flowers with transparent margins, each approximately 4 to 6.5 millimeters long. Growing with thin, flexible stems that can ascend or sprawl, it develops distinctive ovate to obovate leaves 3 to 14 centimeters long with truncate or tapered bases. Its leaves have delicate petioles 3 to 15 millimeters long and appear thin and flexible. The fruit is a unique depressed, deeply three-lobed structure that contains brown seeds with bright red arils, giving the plant an interesting visual character.

California counties: San Mateo, Siskiyou, Mendocino, Sonoma, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Humboldt, Riverside, San Diego, Trinity, Butte, Alameda, Del Norte, Marin

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.