Index / Search / Callicarpa americana

§1 Plant

Callicarpa americana L.

vernacular American beautyberry — species · Verbenaceae


USDA
CAAM2
GBIF
5341129
Rank
species
American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
Platephotograph · Alex AbairCC BY source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Habit and range

Growth habit
Shrub
Duration
Perennial
Group
Dicot
Family
Verbenaceae J. St.-Hil.
Genus
Callicarpa
§2a

Native status, by region

  • L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b

County-level range

· 481 counties across 10 states/territories
Legend Native · 481 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought
High
Shade
Medium
Moisture use
Low
Fire
High
Salinity
None
Anaerobic
None
CaCO₃
Medium
Hedging
Medium
§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance
-8 °F minimum
Frost-free days
175 min.
Precipitation
35–60 in/yr
pH range
4.8–7
Root depth
14 in min.
Fertility need
Low
Soil texture
coarse, medium, fine
§3c

Form & growth

Growth form
Multiple Stem
Growth rate
Moderate
Lifespan
Moderate
Mature height
6 ft
Height @ 20 y
6 ft
Foliage texture
Medium
Foliage colour
Green
Porosity (summer)
Dense
Porosity (winter)
Moderate
Flower colour
Blue
Fruit colour
Purple
Fire resistant
No
N fixation
None
Toxicity
None
§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period
Early Summer
Seed abundance
High
Seed begins
Summer
Seed ends
Fall
Spread rate
Slow
Stratify
No
Seeds / lb
85,000
Propagation
seed, bare root, container
§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability
Routinely Available
Nursery stock
Yes
Browse palatability
High
Graze palatability
Low
Palatable, human
No
Protein potential
Low
Lumber
No
Christmas tree
No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 481 counties across 10 states/territories.

Alabama view state ↗ 25 N
Arkansas view state ↗ 55 N
Florida view state ↗ 67 N
Georgia view state ↗ 52 N
Louisiana view state ↗ 58 N
Mississippi view state ↗ 67 N
North Carolina view state ↗ 56 N
South Carolina view state ↗ 43 N
Tennessee view state ↗ 33 N
Virginia view state ↗ 25 N

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/CAAM2 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/5341129 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T07:25:30Z