Dear Dr. Hill, on Sept. 2nd 2017 we discovered this plant with its brilliant red-orange seeds in a pink highly textured pod growing in a shady, wooded area, not far from our pond. The vine was slender and about three feet tall. It was found on our property in Kershaw County in the sandhills …very sandy and poor soil.
Hi Barbara,
thanks for this! Much easier than Helianthus and Liatris! This shrub is Euonymus americanus, called Hearts-a-bustin-with-love. The fruits are very distinctive. It is actually a shrub, not a vine, but the branches can be long and vine-like at times.
Sincerely,
Steven Hill, Ph.D., Botanist SCNPS