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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Native Plants < Native Plant Database < Calycanthus floridus

Sweetshrub
Carolina Allspice
Calycanthus floridus

Sweetshrub's beauty is far from commonplace; this unusual plant makes a great conversation piece. The spring flowers are stiff, brick-red, cone-shaped little things that are wildly fragrant, and the leaves are lush, shiny, and dark.  The three-inch fall fruits are wonderfully weird. Brown, dry, and sac-like, they mimic insect cocoons—and when hungry birds are fooled and attack, the seeds get dispersed.

The fruits have a delicious strawberry-pineapple-banana-grapefruit scent that is similar to the flowers’ fragrance—only the flower smell tends to be much more delightfully intense. In Growing and Propagating Showy Native Woody Plants, Richard Bir describes the flowers’ odor as “haunting.” He also mentions that it has been compared to the scent of Juicy Fruit chewing gum. But here’s a word of caution after all the hype: Plants are highly variable, so it’s important that you sniff before you buy! Choose a plant with a luscious aroma and site it within easy smelling distance—near a deck or patio or close to a window or entryway. (Sweetshrub’s twigs, leaves, roots, and bark are also aromatic.)

Tough, trouble-free, and highly adaptable, sweetshrub grows well in full shade to part sun in just about any kind of soil. Its dense habit appeals to nesting birds and its foliage to hungry deer. Beetles are most likely its main pollinators.

Family:   Calycanthaceae (Calycanthus Family)

Description: Large deciduous shrub with two-to-six-inch oval-shaped leaves and fragrant red spring flowers. Leathery brown urn-shaped fruits ripen in fall.

Size: 6 to 8 feet high and wide.

Habit: Broad, round, and dense in sun; looser and leggier in shade.

Growth Rate: Medium. Will sprout and spread to form a colony.

Light: Full shade to part sun.

Planting and Care: This tough shrub is easy to transplant and will thrive in just about any spot so long as it has moist, rich soil.

Ornamental Value: Assets include shiny green leaves that turn yellow in fall and interesting fall fruits. In May, deep red flowers bloom, smelling like ripe fruit.

Landscape Usage: Planted in groups or as a specimen, sweetshrub makes a nice addition to the shrub border, fragrance garden, or woodland garden.

Wildlife Benefits: Deer browse the foliage.

Native Habitat: Found in rich, moist woods throughout Georgia.

Propagation: Seed, hardwood and softwood cuttings, layering, division.

Text and photo by Leslie Kimel, Georgia Wildlife Federation