Summary ²

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. The seeds and berries are important foods for many species of birds, particularly the Northern Bobwhite. Fruits are edible by humans but not very palatable because they tend to be astringent. Highly tolerant of a variety of conditions, and can be found often at the forest edges where it gets plenty of light with a bit of shade.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) t_kok, all rights reserved
2. (c) t_kok, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Atlas of Florida Plants
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• OregonFlora.org
• Plants of the World Online
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• The Plant List
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• VASCAN by Canadensys
• World Flora Online

Range Map

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