Common Name:
Bittersweet
About 30 species of deciduous, rarely evergreen, shrubs, usually climbing. Leaves alternate, petioled, margins serrate or crenate; small stipules. Flowers mostly dioecious (male and female plants), some flowers perfect, small, greenish or white, calyx 5-parted, petals oblong-ovate. Fruit usually yellow, separate into 3 valves, each containing 1 or 2 seeds enclosed in a fleshy crimson aril (fleshy thickening of the seed coat). Native to east and southern Asia, Australia and North America.
Celastrus: from the Greek kelastros, the name for an evergreen tree, possibly Phillyrea.
Pronunciation:
sel-LAS-trus
Family:
Celastraceae