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The Japanese spindle tree (Euonymus japonicus) belongs to Celastraceae (the Bittersweet family). It is a small evergreen tree that is distributed from southern Hokkaido to Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu in Japan, as well as Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula and China. This tree grows in coastal forests or woodland edges and can reach 2-6 m in height. The leaves are elliptic and usually opposite. The cymes are borne in the axils and bloom yellowish-green to greenish-white flowers from June to July. The fruits ripen in fall, splitting open and come out reddish-orange seeds when mature. This tree has tolerance of salt damage and widely planted in gardens. In Taiwanese Chinese, it is called "日本衛矛", and in Chinese, "冬青衛矛" (dong qing wei mao).
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