December Vine of the Month-American Bittersweet

For floral designers searching for natural materials to make wreaths, bittersweet is a great find. The cheery red berries look great in both fall and winter holiday décor, and the vines can be easy to work with if harvested at the right time. However, not many foragers can tell the difference between the native American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens, and the invasive Oriental, or sometimes called, round-leafed bittersweet, C. orbiculatus. Both have alternate leaves and bright berries in late summer, persisting through winter.

If your incentives are to have a native vine for birds and animals, not floral design, it’s still better to have the native, more prolific fruiting species, since at least 15 species of birds eat the fruit. And we know what happens when birds eat seeds… they distribute them, so help things out by making sure they distribute the native, not the invasive.

So how do you tell them apart? American bittersweet has clusters of flowers/berries with dark orange capsules, only at the stem tips. Oriental has fruit/flowers along the stems (leaf axils) with bright yellow capsules. The Oriental also has more rounded leaves compared to the native. When compared side by side, the native also has showier fruits if you are seeking material for decorations. It’s also much smaller, growing to maybe 20 feet compared to the Oriental, which can reach 60 feet!

The funny thing about both species is that they are dioecious, meaning separate male and female plants. Nurseries don’t always specify if their bittersweet is male or female. (But let’s hope they specify if it’s the native!)

American bittersweet prefers full sun but tolerates part shade at the expense of flower and fruit production. Bittersweet is a twining woody vine, so it needs a structure to climb on, or it will scramble along the ground. This can be used to your creative advantage if you have a tree stump or ugly chain-link fence to cover.

What I love about this plant:

-It’s native!

-Great for florals

-Great for wildlife

-Good climber to hide eyesores in the landscape.

What’s not so great:

–Easily confused with the invasive Oriental bittersweet.

-Female plants require a nearby male to produce fruit.

-Although tasty to birds, the fruits are considered toxic to the rest of us. Take care with small children and pets.

-Comments or questions? Email Garden-Lou at gardenloustl@gmail.com

Words and photos by Jo Batzer. Additional photos graciously provided by Dan Billman

© Jo Batzer, garden-lou.com-2025, All rights reserved.