Euonymus atropurpureus Jacq.
Other common names: Burningbush, spindle tree, Indian arrowwood, bursting-heart, strawberry-tree, strawberry bush, American spindle tree, bitter ash, pegwood.
Habitat and range: Wahoo is found in woods and thickets from Ontario and the eastern United States to Montana.
Description: This shrub or small tree, which is from 6 to 26 feet in height, more often reaching only 10 feet, has an ashy gray bark and rather thin, pointed leaves from 1 1/2 to 5 inches in length and about half as wide. The purple flowers are produced in June in loose, slender-stemmed clusters of from 6 to 15 flowers each. The pale-purple fruit consists of four deeply cleft, flattened lobes. In autumn the capsules open and disclose the seed surrounded by a red, false seed coat, giving the bush a bright and showy appearance
The name wahoo is applied indiscriminately to Euonymus atropurpureus and E. americanus L., the latter a low and trailing bush having roughened, crimson capsules, to which the name burningbush more properly belongs.
Part used: The bark of the root and the stem.
