My interest in botany began in University and continues to this day as a volunteer with a local conservancy/land trust.

Born and raised in coastal British Columbia, I now call southern Ontario home.

The most definitive means to distinguish between Celastrus scandens and Celastrus orbiculatus is to observe the position and arrangement of the flowers/fruits on the plant. See: Michigan Flora Online & USGS & Minnesota Department of Agriculture

Del Tredici, P. 2014. Untangling the twisted tale of oriental bittersweet. Arnoldia 71: 2 –18. Links: pdf & html

It is important to note that hybrids can sometimes occur between these two species of Celastrus. See the following paper for details:
Zaya, D. N, S. A. Leicht-Young, N. B. Pavlovic, K. A. Feldheim, & M. V. Ashley. 2015. Genetic characterization of hybridization between native and invasive bittersweet vines (Celastrus spp.). Biological Invasions 17: 2975 –2988. Link

BONAP U.S. County-Level Distributions for Celastrus spp: Link

There are about 40+ species of Celastrus worldwide, with a large number found in east Asia.
Celastrus species listed in Plants of the World Online
Celastrus in Flora of China @ efloras.org

The same photo used by multiple accounts is allowed:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/sharing-observations-and-annoying-useless-duplicate-comments/6087/14

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