Discover
Identify
Record
Spindle - Euonymus europaeus
Much branched hairless shrub or small tree 2 to 6 metres. Twigs green, smooth and rounded in early growth, later four longitudinal ridges create a squarer cross-section, finally becoming brown with corky outgrowths.. Leaves opposite and finely toothed. Flowers greeny-white 8 to 10 mm usually 4 parted, several borne in branched cymes. Capsules distinctive and bright pink, four lobed, 10 to 15 mm pendent, splitting to reveal orange seeds.
Woods and scrub - often planted.
Flowers May to June
Deciduous
Fairly common in Britain Northwards to Scotland, but less so North of the border.
Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland and possibly mostly due to unrecorded planting. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 17 of the 617 tetrads.
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
Enter a town or village to see local records
MAP KEY:
Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015
UK Map
Species profile
- Common names
- Spindle, Spindle-Tree
- Species group:
- Trees, Shrubs & Climbers
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Celastrales
- Family:
- Celastraceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 98
- First record:
- 12/08/2008 (Calow, Graham)
- Last record:
- 27/10/2023 (Markham, Marian)
Total records by month
% of records within its species group
10km squares with records
The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.
In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.