An American Beauty for your Autumn Garden
In early fall, when many of our favorite summer blooms have faded and deciduous leaves are just warming up for their autumn spectacle, there's a native shrub that steps into the lacuna to show us something to marvel at. Rather unremarkable through the other seasons, the American beautyberry struts its stuff in the fall with blazing irridescent purple or magenta berries clustered along its branches. And this show lasts well into the winter, after the leaves have dropped! Eventually, the wild creatures will dine on the berries, but until then, the vivid, shiny fruits provide a feast for human eyes.
This native deciduous perennial, Callicarpa americana, naturally occurs in the southeast United States as well as the Carribean and northern Mexico. Hiking through the forest, you will most likely encounter it in sunny clearings or edges of the woods. But you can also enjoy it close to home, as it is a tough plant that adapts nicely to a garden habitat. It tolerates a wide range of soil types and pH, and is pretty drought-tolerant once established. For best bloom and fruiting, plant it in a sunny to mostly-sunny location.
I planted mine as a small transplant and it didn't bloom the first few years, but when it did, the bloom was prolific. The tiny pink or white flowers in late spring to early summer are barely visible from a distance, but don't worry; the pollinators will find them! You'll see evidence of that in August or September, when tight clusters of intensely colored berries form around the leaf axils.
The opposite leaves are large and eliptic with dentate margins, light green through the summer, and turning chartreuse and then yellow before they drop in the fall.
Depending on the variety and its location, this shrub will grow four to eight feet high and about as wide, with arching branches. But it can withstand severe pruning, so if it seems to be getting too big for its breeches, just get out the loppers in late winter, whack it down as far as you like, and it will come back in spring pretty as ever, just smaller.
The original North American people had many medicinal applications for this plant, and its leaves are still used today as an effective repellent for mosquitoes and other biting insects. Want to try it? Here are instructions: https://thegrownetwork.com/natural-bug-repellent-beautyberry/
Callicarpa plays an important role in our ecosystem as a food source for numerous species of birds including robins, cardinals, quails, and finches, and mammals including foxes, raccoons, squirrels, and opposums. Deer are reported to browse on the leaves, but in my experience, beautyberry doesn't appear to be one of their favorite items on the menu; they gobble up most of my other plants before they bother the beautyberry. Many different types of pollinators are attracted to the nectar; some lepidoptera larvae subsist on the leaves, but they don't harm the plant.
American beautyberry typically has very few pest or disease problems, none of them serious.
For a tough, easy-to-grow plant that is attractive in spring and summer and stunning from autumn into winter, American beautyberry is outstanding. But be sure to plant the Callicarpa americana. It's the only beautyberry species that's native to North America. Many exotic plants are harmful to our ecosystems and some are invasive. They simply don't belong here.
For more information:
https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_caam2.pdf
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=caam2
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=j580