Euonymus fortunei plant named `Duncanata Variegated Vegeta`

Abstract

This new cultivar of Euonymus fortunei originated as a branch sport of the all-green `Vegeta` variety (non-patented in the United States). The new cultivar combines the relatively large and broad leaf characteristics as well as the hardiness of the parent `Vegeta` variety with attractive variegated foliage. Plants of the new cultivar have generally wide and irregular whitish-cream leaf margins that commonly cover approximately 20 to 60 percent of the leaf area. This distinctive margin coloration surrounds and occasionally penetrates the leaf centers that are of marbled green and deep forest green. This atypical leaf character gives the new cultivar a characteristically lush and luminous, and artistic appearance. The appearance of the new cultivar is further enhanced by the presence of distinctive whitish stems, and occasionally by a few pearl-like whitish capsules which expose orange-red arils upon dehiscence. The new cultivar exhibits substantially the same form and growth habit as the `Vegeta` variety with the exception that it is slower growing and somewhat smaller in size for a given age. This renders it particularly well suited for growing as a clinging and climbing vine to cover surfaces such as a masonry wall, fence, trellis or tree; as a mounding groundcover; or as a low-spreading shrub when an older plant is selected.

I claim: 
     
       1. A new and distinct cultivar of Euonymus fortunei having the following combination of characteristics: (a) forms ovate to very broadly ovate and broad elliptic to orbicular leaves having a satiny luster and a leathery texture as the `Vegeta` variety (non-patented in the United States) which tend to be larger than those of most other Euonymus fortunei plants,   (b) forms distinctive wide irregular-whitish-cream or sometimes cream leaf margins which surround and penetrate into marbled green and deep forest green leaf centers,   (c) forms new growth stems of greenish-white which deepen to whitish-green before becoming woody,   (d) is less profuse blooming than the `Vegeta` variety,   (e) is slower growing and somewhat smaller in overall size at a given age than the `Vegeta` variety while exhibiting generally the same climbing and spreading growth habit as the `Vegeta` variety, and   (f) exhibits good winter hardiness; substantially as illustrated and described.