What is "euonymus europaeus"

Gatten tree \Gat"ten tree`\ [Cf. Prov. E. gatter bush.] (Bot.) A name given to the small trees called guelder-rose ( Viburnum Opulus), cornel ( Cornus sanguinea), and spindle tree ( Euonymus Europ[ae]us).

Prickwood \Prick"wood`\, n. (Bot.) A shrub ( Euonymus Europ[ae]us); -- so named from the use of its wood for goads, skewers, and shoe pegs. Called also spindle tree.

Euonymus europaeus (spindle, European spindle, common spindle) is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to much of Europe, where it inhabits the edges of forest, hedges and gentle slopes, tending to thrive on nutrient-rich, chalky and salt-poor soils. It is a deciduous shrub or small tree. Other names include fusoria, fusanum, ananbeam, shemshad rasmi (Iran), while it may have given its name to the ancient Greek settlement of Euonymeia.