Euonymus europaeus L.

Euonymus europaeus, the spindle, European spindle, or common spindle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to much of Europe, where it inhabits the edges of forest, hedges and gentle slopes, tending to thrive on nutrient-rich, chalky and salt-poor soils. It is a deciduous shrub or small tree.

Source: Wikipedia

Synonyms 35

Euonymus bulgaricus, Euonymus czernjaevii, Euonymus floribundus, Euonymus medirossicus, Euonymus medius, Euonymus moldavicus, Euonymus odessanus, Euonymus pubescens, Euonymus quadrigonus, Euonymus suberosus, Euonymus vulgaris, Evonymus tenuifolius, Euonymus europaea subsp. moldavica, Euonymus europaea subsp. pontica, Euonymus europaea subsp. subvelutina, Euonymus europaeus subsp. moldavicus, Euonymus europaeus subsp. subvelutinus, Euonymus europaeus subsp. tenuifolius, Euonymus europaea var. involuta, Euonymus europaea var. suberoso-alata, Euonymus europaea var. subvelutina, Euonymus europaeus var. angustifolius, Euonymus europaeus var. intermedius, Euonymus europaeus var. multiflorus, Euonymus europaeus var. suberosus, Euonymus europaeus var. tenuifolius, Euonymus europaeus var. vulgaris, Euonymus vulgaris var. microphyllus, Euonymus europaeus f. angustifolius, Euonymus europaeus f. atropurpureus, Euonymus europaeus f. atrorubens, Euonymus europaeus f. bulgaricus, Euonymus europaeus f. microphyllus, Euonymus europaeus f. scaberulus, Euonymus europaeus f. variegatus

560,004 GBIF occurrences
44,876 iNaturalist observations

Conservation status code

Conservation: status label

Least Concern

Conservation: population trend

Stable

Conservation: year assessed

2018

IUCN Red List page

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/79913822/119836513

Habitats

IUCN: population narrative

The large population of Euonymus europaeus currently appears to be in a stable state (Popescu et al. 2016).

IUCN: habitat narrative

The species is a large deciduous shrub or small tree. It occurs in forest margins, clearings and open woodlands. It is often an understory species in mixed broadleaved oak-hornbeam forests. It grows optimally on well-drained alkaline soils (Popescu et al. 2016). The fruit (a pseudo-aril) is dispersed by birds and rodents. The seeds are poisonous.

IUCN: threats narrative

No serious threats have been documented for this species (Popescu et al. 2016).

IUCN: conservation narrative

This species is recorded in 289 ex situ collections (BGCI 2016). It is listed as Least Concern in Switzerland (Moser et al. 2002), Near Threatened in Estonia (Lilleleht 2008) and was reported as Least Concern in Europe (Harvey-Brown 2017).

IUCN: rationale

Euonymus europaeus is a shrub or tree which has a wide distribution in Europe from Portugal in the west to European Russia in the east. Outside Europe it is found in the Urals and Caucasus. It has also been introduced to the United States and New Zealand. The population appears to be stable and there are no known threats to the species. It is here assessed as Least Concern as it has a large extent of occurrence.

Euonymus europaeus L.

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