Gui Yu Jian

Gui Yu Jian appears to refer to Euonymus alatus, the winged spindle tree (family Celastraceae), the same species treated under the more standard name Gui Jian Yu. It is a deciduous shrub 2 to 4 metres tall whose young branches bear two to four conspicuous, longitudinal, corky wings of suberous tissue along otherwise green stems. Opposite, finely serrate elliptic leaves 3 to 8 centimetres long turn a brilliant crimson in autumn. Small four-petalled greenish-yellow flowers produced in late spring give rise to four-lobed reddish-purple capsules that dehisce to expose seeds wrapped in vivid orange arils. The plant is native to thickets, open woodland, and rocky slopes across northern China, Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East, and the medicinally collected portion is the corky-winged twig.