Euonymus hamiltonianus seed

LATIN NAME: Euonymus hamiltonianus

COMMON NAME: Hamilton’s Spindle Tree

The Hamilton’s spindle tree is a handsome, upright, spreading, deciduous shrub or small tree of the warm woodlands, and its fine, oval or lance-shaped, toothed leaves and its small, inconspicuous, greenish-white flowers, followed by the fine, pink or reddish, four-lobed capsules of the bright orange seeds, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the autumn garden. It grows as an upright, spreading, deciduous shrub or small tree, reaching up to eight metres or more, with the upright, branching stems bearing the opposite, oval or lance-shaped, pointed, toothed leaves and, through the early summer, the small, inconspicuous, greenish-white flowers, followed by the fine, pink or reddish, four-lobed capsules that open to show the bright orange, arilled seeds. It is a species of the flowering plant in the staff tree family, and it is native to the warm woodlands of the eastern Asia, while it is treasured for its fine, orange-seeded, pink capsules, and it is known as the Hamilton’s spindle tree.

In the staff tree family it is the pink-capsuled, orange-seeded spindle of the warm woodlands, a shrub that saves its best show for the autumn.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Hamilton’s spindle tree roots and parts are a familiar subject in the traditional plant chemistry of the eastern Asia, and the constituents have been examined with the greatest care by the researchers across the world. The botanists have mapped its place in the staff tree family and the warm woodland flora, and the wildlife ecologists have watched the autumn birds come to the bright orange seeds in the pink capsules. The plant is best appreciated as a subject of study rather than a casual remedy, and the growers of the autumn shrubs keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the autumn garden, the Hamilton’s spindle tree is the pink-capsuled shrub of the season. Its small flowers feed the insects, its orange seeds in the pink capsules feed the birds, and the dense, leafy growth gives cover and shelter through the year. It is treasured for the bright, orange-seeded capsules that open like little lanterns, and it grows well in the moist, well-drained ground of the sheltered spot. Orange-seeded, pink-capsuled and autumn-bright.

Clean the orange seeds off the pink capsules and give them a cold, damp rest in a bag of moist sand in the fridge, then sow them shallowly in pots of loamy, free-draining soil, keep them moist and set the pots in a bright, sheltered spot, and they’ll come along steadily.