The Eastern Wahoo is one of the handful of idiosyncratic plants that defy the general greyness of November. Also called “burning bush,” it is native to the Midwest, and gets the name Wahoo from the Dakota language, in which it means “Arrow-wood.” (“Wahoo” is also the name of a tropical game fish, and a Creek word for the winged Elm—an example of linguistic convergent evolution I ascribe to the fun-itude of its pronunciation). It is a shrub whose most distinctive feature is its fruit, poisonous to humans but beloved of birds:
Other key features include opposite branching, vertical stripes called lenticels on the bark, and petioles 1/4th to 3/4th inches long.
There are several non-native species in the same genus, including winter creeper/climbing euonymus and winged euonymus to be aware of.
Another plant that has been providing me with some November color is my backyard forsythia. Forsythia is not supposed to bloom in the fall, but sometimes if the weather conditions are right (ie, they approximate early Spring) it is tricked into blooming in October or November, as happened to mine!
recycled paper clips 
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