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"Climbing Bittersweet, Climbing Orange Root, Fever Twig, Fever Twitch, Staff Vine, Waxwork"
Celastraceae Family - From the Greek for a type of evergreen plant and scandens from the Latin for climbing.
Found throughout the Tallgrass region, especially on rich, well-drained woodland soils. Very hearty, sturdy perrennial that can produce vines up to 30 feet long and an inch or more around at the base. The twisting, entwining stems of this species often kill saplings by restricting their growth as they wrap around their small trunks. Flowers are greenish-white, small and scentless and are borne on loose clusters at the branch tips up to 4 inches long. Bittersweet is noted for its colorful fruit, small, pea-sized berries that are wrinkled and brilliant orange. The berry has three sections and each section contains one or two seeds.
Native Americans used the shredded bark from Bittersweet to induce vomiting, treat venereal diseases, as a diuretic and to treat the symptoms of tuberculosis. It was mixed with animal fat to make a salve and treat skin cancers, tumors, burns and swelling. Berries were sometimes used to treat stomach ailments. The Menomini tribe used the berries mixed with other plants to relieve the pain of childbirth. An extract from the boiled bark provided an insecticide for early settlers of the Tallgrass Prairie, however it is not known just how effective this was.
