American Beautyberry

Callicarpa americana (kal-ee-KAR-puh a-mer-ih-KAY-nah)

Family: Lamiaceae Native Shrub (3-15 ft)

The American beautyberry is a woody, deciduous, perennial shrub that produces showy purple fruits in the fall. It is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) and is native to the central and southeastern United States, Bermuda, and Cuba. Beautyberry’s native habitat is open meadows, thickets, woodlands and margins of ponds, ditches and streams. In the spring, green leaves emerge on upright arching stems. The genus name is Greek for beautiful fruit; the species epithet is Latin and means "American." The shrub prefers full sun to part shade and is intolerant of deep shade. It will grow 3-8 feet tall and 3 to 6 feet wide in all types of soil provided it has good drainage. Prune in late winter to 1 foot high as the flowers and fruits appear on new shoots. It can be propagated by seeds or stem cuttings. Clusters of small flowers bloom on the stems during the late spring and early summer. Clusters of purplish to bluish berries develop from August through October and encircle the stem. The fruits may last through early winter. They are a good food source for songbirds and small mammals. The leaves, when crushed, produce a chemical that can repel mosquitoes, ticks, and fire ants. Cultivars are available that offer pink, white, or cream-colored fruits. This plant was selected as the 2021 NC Wildflower of the Year , a program managed by the North Carolina Botanical Garden with some financial support from the Garden Club of North Carolina. This shrub is suited for mass plantings, large landscapes, naturalized areas, pond margins and container gardening. They seem to produce more fruit if several more of the same type of shrubs are planted nearby. American beautyberry is also at home in a butterfly garden, children’s garden, native garden, pollinator garden, and winter garden. Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems: No significant problems. VIDEO: Part of the Native Plant Picks series from the North Carolina Sea Grant-led Coastal Landscapes Initiative . Additional video for Callicarpa americana created by Andy Pulte for “Landscape Plant Identification, Taxonomy and Morphology,” a plant identification course offered by the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee.

Source: NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox ↗ Reconciled to full toolbox: matched by slug to slug 'callicarpa-americana'. Identity (id/common/scientific name) preserved from the original 87-plant Hunnicutt set; attribute data refreshed from the 74-attribute toolbox scrape.