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Summary
Duration	Perennial
Growth Habit	Vine
U.S. Nativity	Native to U.S.
Federal T/E Status
National Wetland Indicator	UPL, FACU
Morphology/Physiology
Active Growth Period	Spring and Summer
After Harvest Regrowth Rate
Bloat
C:N Ratio	High
Coppice Potential	No
Fall Conspicuous	Yes
Fire Resistant	No
Flower Color	White
Flower Conspicuous	No
Foliage Color	Green
Foliage Porosity Summer
Foliage Porosity Winter
Foliage Texture	Coarse
Fruit/Seed Color	Orange
Fruit/Seed Conspicuous	Yes
Growth Form	Thicket Forming
Growth Rate	Rapid
Height at 20 Years, Maximum (feet)	2
Height, Mature (feet)	2
Known Allelopath	No
Leaf Retention	No
Lifespan	Moderate
Low Growing Grass	No
Nitrogen Fixation
Resprout Ability	No
Shape and Orientation	Columnar
Toxicity	None
Growth Requirements
Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Fine Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Medium Textured Soils	Yes
Anaerobic Tolerance	None
CaCO3 Tolerance	Medium
Cold Stratification Required	Yes
Drought Tolerance	Medium
Fertility Requirement	Medium
Fire Tolerance	High
Frost Free Days, Minimum	110
Hedge Tolerance	None
Moisture Use	High
pH, Minimum	5
pH, Maximum	7.5
Planting Density per Acre, Minimum	1200
Planting Density per Acre, Maximum	4800
Precipitation, Minimum	30
Precipitation, Maximum	60
Root Depth, Minimum (inches)	18
Salinity Tolerance	None
Shade Tolerance	Tolerant
Temperature, Minimum (°F)	-38
Reproduction
Bloom Period	Spring
Commercial Availability	Routinely Available
Fruit/Seed Abundance	High
Fruit/Seed Period Begin	Summer
Fruit/Seed Period End	Fall
Fruit/Seed Persistence	No
Propagated by Bare Root	Yes
Propagated by Bulb	No
Propagated by Container	Yes
Propagated by Corm	No
Propagated by Cuttings	No
Propagated by Seed	Yes
Propagated by Sod	No
Propagated by Sprigs	No
Propagated by Tubers	No
Seed per Pound	26080
Seed Spread Rate	Moderate
Seedling Vigor	Medium
Small Grain	No
Vegetative Spread Rate	Rapid
Suitability/Use
Berry/Nut/Seed Product	No
Christmas Tree Product	No
Fodder Product	No
Fuelwood Product	None
Lumber Product	No
Naval Store Product	No
Nursery Stock Product	Yes
Palatable Browse Animal	Low
Palatable Graze Animal	Low
Palatable Human	No
Post Product	No
Protein Potential	Low
Pulpwood Product	No
Veneer Product	No

 

Kingdom  Plantae -- Plants

Subkingdom  Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants

Superdivision  Spermatophyta -- Seed plants

Division  Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants

Class  Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons

Subclass  Rosidae

Order  Celastrales

Family  Celastraceae -- Bittersweet family

Genus  Celastrus L. -- bittersweet P

Species  Celastrus scandens L. -- American bittersweet P

 

Alternate common names

Climbing bittersweet, false bittersweet, climbing orange-root, fever-twig, fever-twitch, staff-vine, jacob’s-ladder

 

Uses

American bittersweet is valued for its glossy green summer foliage followed by orange and red fruits and seeds, and several landscape cultivars are commercially marketed.  The branches with colorful berries and arils are used in dry flower arrangements and winter decoration.

 

All parts of bittersweet are reported to be poisonous, but songbirds, ruffed grouse, pheasant, and fox squirrel eat the fruits.  The Menominee, Ojibwa, and Potawatami tribes of North American Indians have used the inner bark as an emergency food.  Various parts of the plant have been used in decoctions and ointments for a variety of ailments, including cough, intestinal, and gynecological problems.

 

Oil expressed from the seeds of the related species Celastrus paniculatus, a shrub native to India, has been used medicinally in India for centuries.  The oil is used to increase memory and facilitate learning.  It induces a feeling of well being and has reported aphrodisiac effects. 

 

Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as state noxious status and wetland indicator values.

 

Description

General: Bittersweet family (Celastraceae).  Native dioecious or partly dioecious, semi-shrubs or semi-shrubby vines, forming low, thick stands from root suckers, clambering and climbing onto fences and trees, broadly twining and sometimes reaching nearly 20 meters high, the older stems becoming several cm broad; roots long, woody, bright-orange, creeping, about 2-3 cm thick, with a thick, red or yellowish-red bark (the medicinal part).  Leaves are deciduous, alternate, spiral or somewhat 2-ranked by the twisting of the stem, glabrous, 5-12 cm long and about half as wide, oblong-elliptic to ovate or obovate, acuminate at the tip, with small, rounded teeth, the petioles 1-2 cm long.  Flowers are unisexual (with either the stamens or the ovary abortive) or rarely bisexual, fragrant, small (ca. 4 mm wide), greenish-white or greenish-yellow, in clusters at the branch tips, usually with 14-44 flowers per cluster.  Fruits are orange to yellow-orange, globose, 7-10 mm wide, with 2-4 cells; seeds 1-2 in each cell, each seed enclosed in a bright scarlet fleshy aril.

 

The related oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus Thunb.) is becoming more common than American bittersweet and is attaining a similar geographic range.  The following contrast gives information for their separation:

 

1. Leaves mostly oblong-elliptic to ovate, 1.8-2.6 times longer than wide; flowers and fruits 6 or more in panicles (irregularly branching) at the branch tips.    Celastrus scandens

 

2. Leaves mostly obicular to suborbicular or broadly obovate, 1.2-1.7 times longer than wide; flowers and fruits 2-3 in cymes (regularly branching) in the leaf axils below the branch tips.   Celastrus orbiculatus

 

Distribution

American bittersweet grows over the eastern two-thirds of the US (except for Florida), on the western edge of the range from Texas and Oklahoma to Wyoming and Montana, and across southeastern Canada from Saskatchewan to New Brunswick.

 

Adaptation

In rich or swampy woods, or appearing weedy in disturbed areas in thickets, roadsides, field edges, fences, and other disturbed sites.  This species flowers in late May through June and produces fruits in June through November.  

 

Establishment

The seeds are widely distributed by birds, which accounts for the tendency of the species to occur in disturbed habitats.  Prechilling apparently is required to break dormancy -- seeds stratified for 90 days at 5º C., then planted in soil maintained at 20-25º, germinated at 71%.

 

Management

American bittersweet vines can girdle and kill live plants used for support, but the native species rarely presents a problem because of its relative lack of abundance.  Oriental bittersweet, however, is displacing the native species where they have begun to occur together, and there is some indication that they are hybridizing.  The non-native species grows over vegetation and kills other plants by preventing photosynthesis, girdling, and uprooting by force of its massive weight.  Its seeds are more numerous and more desirable by birds, thus more widely dispersed and they have a higher germination rate.  The non-native species has higher pollen viability and also is more efficient in photosynthesis.  Further, oriental bittersweet has been planted along roadsides for erosion control, it is propagated for horticulture and sold commercially, and its seeds are spread to waste places through disposal of dried flower arrangements. 

 

Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for more information.  Look in the phone book under ”United States Government.”  The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading “Department of Agriculture.”

 

References

Brizicky G.K. 1964.  The genera of Celastrales in the southeastern United States.  J. Arnold Arbor. 45:206-234.

 

Cromer, J.A. 1974.  American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens L.  IN: Shrubs and vines for northeastern wildlife.  USDA, Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-9. 

 

DeWolf, G. 1982.  Bittersweet.  Horticulture 60(10):8-9. 

 

Dillingham, F.T. 1907.  The staff tree, Celastrus scandens, as a former food supply of starving Indians. Amer. Naturalist 41:391-393.

 

Dreyer, G.D., L.M. Baird, & C. Fickler 1987.  Celastrus scandens and Celastrus orbiculatus: Comparisons of reproductive potential between a native and an introduced species.  Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 114:260-264.

 

Duncan, W.H. 1969.  Celastrus (Celastraceae) in the southeastern United States.  Sida 3:309-310. 

 

Hou, D. 1955.  A revision of the genus Celastrus.  Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 42:215-302.  

 

White, O.E. & W.M. Bowden 1947.  Oriental and American bittersweet hybrids.  J. Heredity 38:125-127.

 

Prepared By

Guy Nesom

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

 

Species Coordinator

Lincoln Moore

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Edited: 13nov00 jsp; 10jun03 ahv; 05jun06 jsp

 

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS Web site<https://plants.usda.gov> or the Plant Materials Program Web site <https://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov>

 

 

 

Attribution:  U.S. Department of Agriculture