celastrus

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A genus of shrubby climbers or trees, natural order Celastraceœ, natives of America and of the mountains of India, China, Japan, and parts of Africa: commonly called Staff-trees.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun the type genus of the Celastraceae, comprising the plants called climbing bittersweet; bittersweet and shrubby bittersweet; they are woody vines and shrubs native chiefly to Asia and Australia, bearing yellow to orange capsules which open to expose red-coated seeds. See also bittersweet{3b}.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun genus of woody vines and erect shrubs (type genus of the Celastraceae) that is native chiefly to Asia and Australia: includes bittersweet