Vine/shrub sounds like Euonymus fortunei. I think it's important to know what Euonymus species is being discussed because there are beautiful native ones and horrendous invasive ones. Unfortunately, fortunei is on the invasive list.

Good morning and thank you.

I don’t have any plans to plant one but good to know in the invasiveness. I’d never seen it before.

Invasiveness of almost any plant is going to be locationally dependent. Not all invasive plants are invasive everywhere, which is why there are regional, state and even county invasive plant listings.

There are wide areas of the country where Euonymus fortunei is not considered invasive nor does it show any signs of being so. Always check with local invasive boards and authorities to confirm what may or may not be recommended for your area.

Also not convinced it is E. fortunei. Scale seems off for that. Leaf size looks more like E. japonicus.

Gardengal, It might be E. japonicus. The leaves seem bigger to me imo, more like fortunei. A couple more pictures would help. It's only recently that I've observed how beautiful the native Euonymus are and how invasive E. alata is. Don't know if the other non native Euonymus are causing any trouble here. I, myself feel it's best to get rid of my non native species and plant more of the native ones. I still have 1 very old E. fortunei and 4 E. europaeus to kill. I've gotten 5 Euonymus obovatus plants and am planning on getting the other 2 eastern natives also. The western wahoo, E. occidentalis is nice too.

Jay, just to clarify E. fortunei typically has smaller leaves than japonicus. Not by a huge margin but certainly smaller....and in the case of the cultivar 'Kewensis', significantly smaller :-)

It will matter a lot by region and by personal gardening philosophy but I have no issue at all with non-native, noninvasive species. Some of the best garden ornamentals are plants not native to this country! As are some of the worst :-)

Local native species tend not to be very gardenworthy, either requiring a wooded or forested area or of a suckering, spreading habit so they are not used with a heavy hand here in most cultivated gardens. And natives from across the country are really not native species at all..........again, like the invasive issue, nativity is going to be highly locationally dependent as well.

I wasn't thinking of growing the western wahoo here. I don't like to grow things that are native to the west coast. I've been trying to find seeds for our blue eyed Mary, Collinsia verna, and the only Collinsia seeds available are the west coast Collinsia grandiflora, but I won't grow it. Some milkweed nerds over here are trying to grow the western arid Asclepias species. I think that is too much work to make it worthwhile. We have some problems here with natives that have been let loose from where they were restricted, Robinia pseudoacacia and Phragmites, ect. Some people might think the world would be more beautiful if it was covered in Japanese maples and hostas, but then all our wildlife would be no more.

Maybe you don't have as many garden worthy natives in your particular west coast area, but we have more than enough natives here in the east to fill every imaginable ecological niche, and then some. I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from exploring native gardening because for some people today it might be something that could save their lives. You know, give them hope when they start seeing all the beauty and life, that they've brought into their gardens.