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Home / Browse / Euonymus / Winter Creeper (var. fortunei)
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Pictured: Euonymus fortunei — the species. This variety isn’t separately illustrated.
Celastraceae family

Winter Creeper (var. fortunei) Euonymus fortunei var. fortunei variety

Winter Creeper (var. fortunei) is an introduced perennial shrub, found in the lower 48 states.

More about this plant

Euonymus fortunei, the spindle, Fortune's spindle, winter creeper or wintercreeper, is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to east Asia, including China, Korea, the Philippines and Japan. E. fortunei is highly invasive and damaging in the United States, causing the death of trees and forest in urban areas. Wikipedia →

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Winter Creeper (var. fortunei) is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Bog Birch
Native
Bog Birch
Betula pumila
●●●●●
Sandcherry
Native
Sandcherry
Prunus pumila
●●●●●
Sesquehana Sandcherry
Native
Sesquehana Sandcherry
Prunus susquehanae
●●●●●
Chestnut Oak
Native
Chestnut Oak
Quercus montana
●●●●●
Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 7 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~11 caterpillar species

Euonymus supports ~11 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Euonymus in North America, including:

Cacoecimorpha pronubana · Carnation Tortix Caloptilia syringella · leaf-blotch miner moth Herpetogramma theseusalis · snout moth Hyalophora cecropia · Cecropia Moth Hyphantria cunea · tiger moth Orgyia leucostigma · White-Marked Tussock Moth
+ 5 more species →
Samia cynthia · Ailanthus Silkmoth Samia walkeri · giant silk moth Yponomeuta euonymella · ermine moth Yponomeuta multipunctella · American Ermine Moth Yponomeuta plumbella · ermine moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (11) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[09] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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