Oriental bittersweet

We know that this species is oriental bittersweet, because it has bright red berries with yellow skin all over it- a distinctive trait of oriental bittersweet. When we searched for this species it was mid October, so some of the green leaves that you would see in the summer are gone. These berries are present everywhere on the oriental bittersweet, which is a trait that differentiates it from American Bittersweet, a commonly confused relative.

Another reason why we think that we found oriental bittersweet is because of the length and texture of the stem. The stems were nearly twenty meters in length and surviving all over the location. They were were wooden, bumpy and brown, which is what they are supposed to look like if they're of a certain age. The bittersweet we found had brown stems which would mean it was an older plant.Though we don't know how to determine the exact age, it would make sense that most were older because of certain defining traits such as size, color, and how widespread they were through the field.

We think this is oriental bittersweet because the leaves have toothed edges and were arranged in an alternating pattern. The leaves also appeared to have an oval like shape which is another trait of oriental bittersweet. The leaves we found were around 8 cm long and a lot of the leaves had pointed tips. Some of the green leaves had fallen off, because they thrive in July and August, which had ended recently enough so that some traces of this seasonal characteristic remained.