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Home  /  Plants  /  Budburst Species  /  Celastrus orbiculatus
Phenology Observation Sheet for Deciduous Trees and Shrubs

COMMON NAME

Oriental bittersweet

SCIENTIFIC NAME

Celastrus orbiculatus

Plant family

Bittersweet (Celastraceae)

Plant group

Deciduous Trees and Shrubs

Oriental bittersweet is a perennial, deciduous, climbing, woody vine that can grow up to 60 ft. (18.3 m) in length and 4 in. (10 cm) in diameter. Native to eastern Asia, this plant has become invasive in areas of the U.S. It dominates gap and edge environments, including forest edges, roadsides, and meadows, but may also be found in undisturbed forest.
22 reports
15+
OBSERVERS
22+
OBSERVATIONS
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Identification hints

 Leaves are light green, glossy, rounded, finely toothed and arranged alternately along the stem. They vary widely in size (2-12 cm long and 1.5 -8 cm wide) and shape (broadly oblong-obovate to suborbicular). Small, 5-petaled, greenish-whitish flowers bloom in clusters, typically between May and June. Fruits capsules are green when young, ripen to yellow, then split to reveal seeds covered in fleshy red-orange (berry-like) arils.
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Did you know?

Oriental bittersweet is commonly mistaken for the rarer native American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens). Pay attention to the placement of the flowers: They grow at the end of branches on American bittersweet and in the axils of the leaves on Oriental bittersweet.
DISTRIBUTION IN TH U.S.
Arizona , Connecticut , Delaware , Georgia , Iowa , Illinois , Indiana , Kentucky , Massachusetts , Maryland , Maine , Michigan , North Carolina , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New York , Ohio , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , South Carolina , Tennessee , Virginia , Vermont , Wisconsin , West Virginia
HABITAT
There is no information available about this species.

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