Common Name: American Beautyberry
Scientific Name: Callicarpa americana
Family: Verbenaceae
Order: Lamiales
Wetland Plant Status: Facultative
Ecology & Description American beautyberry (also known as French mulberry, sourbush, bunchberry, or purple beauty-berry) is a deciduous perennial, shade-tolerant, multi-trunked shrub with many spreading branches. It often grows 3-5 feet tall and usually just as wide, but can get up to 9 feet. The leaves are opposite, ovate to broadly lanceolate. They are 7-17 centimeters long and 3-9 centimeters wide and are whitish- woolly hairy beneath with prominent veins. The flowers are dense auxiliary clusters that consist of 5 lobes. Corollas are pinkish-white and on white stalks. During early fall, clusters of small purple berries form along the stems.
Habitat This beauty is found mostly in woods, swamps, and bottomlands. This plant is most frequent and abundant on moist sites under open pine canopies. It persists after harvesting and site preparation, and can become abundant in new forest plantations. It is present along forest margins, right-of-ways, and fencerows. American beautyberry is fairly fire tolerant and is spread by bird-dispersed seeds. The also grow easily in full sun or light. It is mostly restricted to climates with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. American beautyberry grows best in clay or loamy silt but will also grow on sandy sites.
Native/Invasive Status & Distribution American beautyberry is a native plant species in the lower 48 states. It grows from Texas to south Florida, north to Maryland, and west to Missouri and Oklahoma.
Wildlife Uses American beautyberry fruit is consumed by more than 40 species of songbirds, particularly the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), Purple Finch (Haemorphous prupureus), and Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus). Although it is considered a medium preference browse species, leaves are commonly browsed by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and can be a major part of the summer diet when highly preferred foods are scarce. Cattle occasionally browse on the leaves of this plant. The fruit is also eaten by raccoon (Procyon lotor), opossum (Didelphis virginiana), and a gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). As for the nutritional value, American beautyberry consists of minor amounts of vitamins and carbohydrates. It also can contain amounts of protein, calcium, and phosphorous at certain times of the year. Recent studies indicate that beautyberry leaves contain several very strong mosquito repellent molecules. Toxicity of these molecules still needs to be determined before used. Some people have reported stomach upset after eating beautyberries. On the brighter side, American beautyberry provides environmental protection for a variety of birds and small mammals along the coastal plains of the southern United States.
Management Techniques This plant is relatively maintenance free, but the thinning-type pruning method works best since regular shearing removes flowers and developing fruits. When pruning, only old stems should be trimmed because fruit only develops on new stems.
References Miller, J. H. and K. V. Miller. 2005. Forest Plants of the Southeast and their Wildlife Uses. The University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia, USA. 454 pp. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). 2015. PLANTS Database. Plants Data Team, United States Department of Agriculture, Greensboro, North Carolina.
This document was authored by Kaitlyn Fletcher, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Louisiana Tech University, April 2015.