The American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana Linnaeus) is native to upland habitats of the southeastern U.S. The light pink flowers are arranged in cymes in the axils of the leaves. The flowers appear in late spring/early summer on new wood—the branches grown since the shrub emerged from winter dormancy. Dense clusters of fruits surround the branches at the paired opposite leaves. The 'berries' ripen a deep magenta and remain on the shrub through winter when the branches are bare.
Beautyberries in the garden attract birds—mockingbirds, towhees, cardinals—the Dallas Museum of Natural History reports that 10 species of birds are known to take the beautyberry's fruit. The fruit is astringent and not taken by birds until late winter after other forage fruits are gone.
Walter Kingsley Taylor (Florida Wildflowers in their Natural Communities, 1998, University Press of Florida) states "Ripened fruit is used for making jellies...Formerly used in the South for dropsy". William Cook, MD (The Physiomedical Dispensatory, 1869) wrote that the bark made an aromatic bitter tonic "grateful to the stomach" and the "leaves act upon the kidneys rather freely". The diuretic properties may well have eased the edema associated with dropsy, but beautyberry was not mentioned in other 19th Century botanical-medical texts. Perhaps the effect was considered too harsh, ineffective, or otherwise inappropriate for humans.
Linnaeus named the genus from the Greek words, kallos "beauty" and karpos "fruit". Members of the Verbenaceae, the vervain family, there are 135 species of beautyberries native to Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. Callicarpa americana is the only species native to the continental U.S. In March 1792, George Washington ordered 200 trees and shrubs from John Bartram's Nursery—among the many plants, an American beautyberry for his garden. (Washington Papers, Alderman Library, University of Virginia)
