American Beautyberry
Scientific Name: Callicarpa americana
Common Names: American Beautyberry, American Mulberry
Family: Verbenaceae
Plant Type: shrub; 3-8 feet tall; spread 4-8 feet; sprawling, open branches
Origin: native to Florida
USDA Hardiness Zones: 7 through 11; includes all of Florida.
Uses: screen or border; late summer specimen; naturalized garden; attracts wildlife
Flower and Fruit: lavender flowers in the spring followed by magnificent clusters of purple berries in late summer
Light Requirements: part shade/part sun to full sun
Drought Tolerance: moderate
Propagation: seed or softwood cuttings
The eye-catching clusters of purple berries on the American beautyberry stops people in their tracts and are a prized late summer food source for birds and other wildlife.
Beautyberry, commonly found along the edges of hammock habitats and in open pine stands in Florida, is becoming a useful specimen plant in naturalized gardens where it blends in well as a medium sized shrub amongst pines and oaks. The fruits and seeds of beautyberry are eaten and dispersed by more than forty species of songbirds, deer, raccoons, opossums, armadillos, and numerous small rodents.
If you are looking for a showy specimen shrub addition to your garden that requires minimal attention and is a favorite amongst wildlife, American Beautyberry may be the ticket. Please be aware that the shrub is not dense in foliage and dies back in the winter.
For more information about American Beautyberry and other Florida shrubs:
American Beautyberry Fact Sheet - http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FP090
Selected shrubs for Central Florida - http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/EP033
Beautyberry Fact Sheet 2 - http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/beautyberry/beautybe.htm
