American Beautyberry: Purple Now
American Beautyberry
Verbenacea
Other Names: Dwarf Mulberry, Beautybush, Filigree, French Mulberry, Beautyberry
Introduction: Purple berries clinging around stems with bright green foliage make Callicarpa americana stand out from late summer to winter. It is easy to see how beautyberry got its common name. Don’t let its looks fool you though; Callicarpa is more than just eye candy. Callicarpa americana is useful medicinally and as food for wildlife and people. American Beautyberry is not fussy about location, soil or light requirements. This tough plant is an American Beauty in every sense of the word. Its name comes from Greek: Kalli, means beautiful; Karpos means fruit.
Historic Medicinal Uses:
Native Americans had many uses for beautberry, both internally and externally. According to Taylor (1940), Native Americans used beautyberry externally as a steam and topical application. All parts of the plants were used for different purposes Roots, leaves, and berries became the base for various teas and decoctions created to treated a wide variety of common aliments. It was also used for ceremonial activities.
Crushed berries were rubbed on the skin to repel mosquitoes. In modern times, farmers and ranchers in Texas applied the berries and leaves to cattle and horses in order to repel flies. A study by Kinghorn (2008) confirms that Callicarpa Americana does have mosquito bite deterrent actions. Callicarpa leaves contain terpenoids that repel fire ants according to a recent study by Chen, Cantrell, Duke, and Allen (2008).
Other ethno botanical uses: Native Americans used Callicarpa americana for ceremonial uses. William Bartram recorded Native Americans cultivating Callicarpa americana in Georgia and Northeast Florida during his botanical expeditions of the 1740s. The plant has been use to produce dye and fish poison.
Austin documents that traditional uses of related Mexican species include making of rafters and supports for bean vines.
Today we enjoy beautyberry for its other wonderful features: berries, delicate flowers, drought resistance and value to wildlife. And now is the time! Go out into any natural area, or any neighborhood where people are savvy about native plants, and you will behold the amazing beautyberry in all its glory. The berries, which you may see at almost any time of year, are coming into their peak season right now sporting brilliant red to magenta swirls of tightly clustered little globes.
Beautyberry occurs naturally over a wide portion of the southeastern United States, which, as you might deduce, means that it is highly tolerant of a variety of conditions. It likes to pop up at the forest edges where it gets plenty of light with a bit of shade. Beautyberry is an"easy keeper." Once established, it is very drought tolerant, but does need good drainage. If left on its own it reaches heights of 5 to 9 feet, frequently as wide as it is high. The natural shape is something of a mound form with gracefully arching branches. Beautyberry also can be planted in amongst other shrubs where it will stretch up and out to reach light.
Callicarpa, berries on ends, stretching up in with serenoa repens, necklace pod and gumbo limbo.
The flower bloom occurs most typically from mid spring to mid summer; in white, pale pink, lavender, violet; short lived flowers; small; whirled clusters called cymes. They are very attractive to butterflies.
Callicarpa is easy to propagate from hardwood cuttings or seed. In fact birds scatter the seed everywhere! It is not hard at all, though, to pull up seedlings if they are dropped where you don't want one. If planting seeds, remove the fleshy part and scarify the seed. Highly recommended plant!
Pat Bratianu PhD RN
HealingPlantsofFlorida.com
and
sue dingwell
Comments
It didn't appear in any of the toxic plant databases that I checked, so I think you and your critters are safe. From what I understand, many humans don't particularly care for it, so it's entirely possible that the cats around won't like it either. As far as birds go, Beautyberry has always been a fave of theirs, so you just might become your peacocks' biggest fan. Whether that's something you hoped to become is another thing ;)
Hope that helps!
Here's the link to my Beautyberry Jelly recipe - really easy and very tasty!
http://www.hogtownhomegrown.com/Newsletter%20Recipes/Beautyberry%20Jelly.html
Enjoy -
Stefanie
Yes, you can transplant it, but WHEN you transplant it is a critical factor to successful transplantation. Wait until late fall/early winter in your area (assuming you are in Florida) to do so. You can root-prune about halfway around it now, though, to prepare the plant for moving, but don't go overboard. Reduce the top growth to about 1' before relocating it to minimize stress.
Beautyberry can be propagated by softwood cuttings or seed. You are more likely to successfully propagate softwood cuttings than you are to get beautyberry seeds to grow; germination percentage is typically pretty low for this species. I have found that most cuttings benefit from a dip in rooting hormone.
Thanks for all the info!
Beautyberry can certainly be propagated from softwood cuttings. I recommend dipping the cut end in a rooting hormone (rootone or something similar) for better results. Also, do not let the cutting dry out completely. Glad you found our page. Good luck!
I'm not sure what the most practical way is to go about removing a large quantity of this plant. For starters, you should bear in mind that the berries are eaten by many birds, armadillo, foxes, opossum, raccoon, squirrels and deer so they are a vector for its seed. Cut the plants back during the summer to curb fruit production. After that, you can either dig the plants up or, I imagine, you can treat them with a brush killer. Even with treatment, you will still have to dig them up to get rid of them completely, so you'd probably be better off eliminating toxic chemicals from the process.
Another alternative you can consider would be to contact the Native Plant Society of Texas to find out if they would be willing to take the plants off of your hands. Their website is http://www.npsot.org/