American Beautyberry (Murfreesboro Indigenous Plant Project (MIPP) Guide)

American Beautyberry

Callicarpa americana

Summary ⁷

Callicarpa americana (American beautyberry) is an open-habit, native shrub of the Southern United States which is often grown as an ornamental in gardens and yards. American beautyberries produce large clusters of purple berries, which birds and deer eat, thus distributing the seeds.

Description ⁸

American beautyberry is a rapidly-growing North American native shrub that forms long, loosely-arranged, arching branches, five to eight feet tall and equally wide. Smooth bark that is light brown on the older wood, and reddish brown on younger wood. Coarse, fuzzy, light green, deciduous leaves that grow in pairs or in threes(opposite or whorled leaf arrangement), ovate to elliptic, and margins coarsely toothed except towards the base and near the tip, 4-8 inches long. Flowers are small, lavender-pink, and in dense clusters at the bases of the leaves from April to October. Its most striking feature is the clusters of glossy, iridescent, round, fruit, which hug the branches at the leaf axis in the fall and winter. The bright lavender-pink, magenta, violet, or rarely white, color is a distinguishing feature of beautyberry. Fruits are edible by humans but not very palatable because they tend to be astringent. Highly tolerant of a variety of conditions, beautyberry can be found often at the forest edges where it gets plenty of light with a bit of shade.

Distribution ⁷

The native range of C. americana extends from Maryland to Florida, west to Texas and Arkansas, and also Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Cuba.

Ecology/Wildlife Use ⁷

The berries ripen in September through October and are a favorite among wild bird species including cardinals, mockingbirds, finches, woodpeckers and more. They are important foods for many species of birds, particularly the Northern Bobwhite.

Beautyberry is commonly planted in landscape designs to attract wildlife because of the food source the berries provide and the cover animals get from the shrub itself.

Growing American Beautyberry ⁹

American beautyberry is a wonderful, large understory shrub with a naturally loose and graceful arching form. In the fall and early winter, the branches are laden with magenta purple (sometimes white) berry clusters that look spectacular as the leaves drop in autumn. It is useful as a screen in swampy or wooded locations or under shade trees in a garden setting. It can be cut to 12" above the base each winter to encourage more compact growth, flowers and fruit. It can also be left to mature naturally into a tall woody shrub. The shrub may temporarily defoliate and lose developing fruit during periods of prolonged summer drought. (Source: wildflower.org)

Sources and Credits

(c) Forest and Kim Starr, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Callicarpa_americana_(24976139485).jpg
(c) John Murphy, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georgia_State_Botanical_Gardens_(8137290308)_(2).jpg
(c) CameliaTWU, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/cameliatwu/10452162505/
(c) zen Sutherland, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/54289096@N00/26977280
(c) Tom Potterfield, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgpotterfield/10987173935/
(c) c michael hogan, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by c michael hogan
Adapted by Murfreesboro,TN, Natural Resource Division from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callicarpa_americana
Adapted by Murfreesboro,TN, Natural Resource Division from a work by (c) t_kok, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/526704
(c) Murfreesboro,TN, Natural Resource Division, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
Adapted by Lauren LeCroy May from a work by (c) Murfreesboro,TN, Natural Resource Division, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

iNat Map

Form	Shrub
Light	Full sun, Part sun
Soil moisture	Medium
Site	Wetland, Woodland
Bloom period	June, July, August
Bloom color	Lavender, Pink, Insignificant
Fruit/seeds/etc.	Berries
Wildlife supported	Birds - songbirds, Birds - other, Other wildlife
Family	Mint family

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