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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Native Plants < Native Plant Database < Callicarpa americana

American Beautyberry
French Mulberry, Spanish Mulberry, Turkeyberry, Bunchberry, Foxberry
Callicarpa americana

Following a land clearing, beautyberry is one of the first plants to appear, preventing erosion and helping the land begin to heal. This pioneer also makes a very attractive landscape plant. In summer its branches are encircled by halos of tiny pink to lavender flowers. These are followed in fall by tight round bunches of dazzling purple berries that ring the branches just like the flowers do. Even after the leaves fall, the berries often persist for some time, vivid against the bare silver-gray bark of the branches and reminiscent of purple shish kabobs.

How long do the berries last? Until they are eaten. Mockingbirds, purple finches, towhees, cardinals, Carolina wrens, bobwhites, catbirds, robins, and brown thrashers find them quite tempting. Raccoons, possums, squirrels, and armadillos are fond of them, too.

Though beautyberry is extremely shade tolerant, it flowers and fruits best if given at least a half-day of sun. Beautyberry isn’t fussy about its soil, but what it does need is space—mature plants often stretch more than 8’ across.

Family:  Verbenaceae (Verbena Family)

Description: Large deciduous shrub with 3 to 6", fuzzy, medium green leaves. Small lilac-pink flowers appear in summer. Bright purple fruits ripen in October and persist into winter. Fall leaf color is yellow.

Size: 4 to 8’ high and wide.

Habit: Loose, open, upright, medium-sized shrub.

Growth Rate: Fast.

Light: Full sun to full shade.

Planting and Care: This adaptable plant will grow in dry or moist, acidic or alkaline soils. It has a naturally beautiful shape and generally does not need pruning.

Ornamental Value: Assets include pink summer flowers, yellow fall color, and showy purple fruits in fall and winter.

Landscape Usage: Plant in the shrub border, under pine trees, or in masses at the edge of a woodland.

Wildlife Benefits: Fruits are consumed by purple finches, Carolina wrens, towhees, cardinals, raccoons, armadillos, and other wildlife.

Native Habitat: Found in oak woods, flatwoods, pineland clearings, and scrubs in the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and mountains.

Propagation: Seed, division, hardwood and softwood cuttings.

Text and photo by Leslie Kimel, Georgia Wildlife Federation