Strange red fruit, got any ideas?

Maggs

Can anyone give a clue as to the possible identity of the tree this fruit belongs to. I am about to attempt my first upload of photos now so bear with me if I get it wrong. The photos were taken about 13 months ago so it won't be possible to get a picture of the tree as a whole, or even a complete leaf but the fruit seem very distinctive so I'm hoping it's enough. They were taken by an acquaintance of mine who is interested in the identity of the tree.

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Maggs

P.S. I forgot to mention that the tree is somewhere in the USA

Eden Keeper

It looks like the vine American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens L., but I can't rule out the invasive Oriental bittersweet, C. orbiculatus Thunb., due to the likelihood of an encounter.

Brent Ferris

Are those berries poisonous?

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Maggs

Thanks for your suggestions. I looked at them on Google images and on neither plant are the leaves or seed pods (or what ever they are) the same as my examples. The skins of my example appear to have wrinkled back from the seeds and before that stage they looked remarkably like orange peel with a very distinctive part where the flower used to be. Sorry, names are escaping me, its an age thing. The leaves are ovate and finely serrated so far as can be seen from the photographs. More suggestions would be welcomed.

Steve Galehouse

It's definitely a Celastrus, but whether an American or Oriental is hard to tell from the photos. Flower/fruit clusters on American are usually terminal, while Oriental usually has flowers/fruit on side spurs. Oriental is a lot more common in the U.S. than the native.