A couple of garden questions, with pics

Factual Questions
1

First, the photos are here,
or in the Garden album here. (One of those should work.)

I was out in the yard this morning chopping grape vines out of a tree, and found two odd deposits that I thought at first were leaking sap. On looking more closely, I saw that they’re not the usual shapeless oozing blobs like evergreens make, but consist of a tangle of thread-like loops as if it had been extruded. The substance is semitransparent like pine gum, but hard instead of sticky. (Maybe it just dried out, but pine gum takes a LONG time to harden that much.) That’s the first two pictures.

The other two pictures show a couple of stems of a shrub I cut down a while back, and the leaves where it’s sprouting from the root. They have what seem to be “thorns” but they’re not pointed. Each “thorn” seems to start as a nearly rectangular fin, and grows to form a sharp-edged ridge along the stem. They get nearly 1/4 inch high and over an inch long. I’ve seen similar bushes before but never got an ID.

Anybody know what either item is?

2

I believe the winged stems are euonymus. That’s the way they grow. It’s also known as burning bush, because of the brilliant fall colors. Some folks also call it euonafuck, because, hey, who wants to mus?

I haven’t a clue about the sap.

3

Thanks for the reply. I found a good page here that makes me happier to have cut it down. It’s an introduced species that’s very invasive.

I’ll call this my bump to hope for info on the curly <sap?> deposits.

4

I honestly thought the “sap” things were those little Japanese figurines you see in Bonsii.
No clue.

5

The bark looks the same as euonymus, but by the leaves I take it to be a Winged Elm.

Its pollen gives nasty hay fever, so you should still cut it down.

About the sap, I too have no clue.

6

Thanks to you too, Myron. I’m certainly going to keep knocking it down in either case (just like those damn holly bushes that won’t quit). It’s under a tree that both the butterflies and I like, and under the edge of the deck as well.