Wintercreeper, Climbing Euonymus

Plant: Evergreen, dense groundcover or shrub to 3 ft (1 m) tall or climbing to 40-70 ft (12-22 m) high clinging by aerial roots, leaves thick, dark green or green-white variegated and opposite on green stems, pinkish to red capsules split open in fall to expose fleshy orange seed, spreads by animal-dispersed seeds and vine growth, rooting at nodes.

Stem: Twigs stout, lime green, and hairless becoming increasingly dusted and streaked with light gray-reddish cork bark, bearing patches or lines of protruding aerial roots underneath or along surfaces used for attachment. Branches opposite, leaf scars thin upturned white crescents, branch scars jutting forward containing a light semicircle. Older stems covered with gray cork bark becoming fissured and checked on larger stems.

Leaves: Opposite, broadly elliptic (egg shaped), smooth glossy (hairless) and moderately thick, 1-2.5 in (1-6 cm) long and 1-1.8 in (2.5-4.5 cm) wide, dark green with whitish lateral and midveins or variegated green-white above and light green beneath, margins finely crenate, somewhat turned under (revolute) to wavy, bases tapering to petiole, petioles 0.15-0.4 in (0.4-1 cm) long.

Flowers: May-July. Axillary clusters of small flowers at the ends of Y-shaped stems, flowers inconspicuous, 0.1 in (2-3 mm) wide, greenish-yellow, 5 petals, pistils soon elongating to form fruits.