Pale-leaf yucca

Edwards Plateau savanna

Mississippi lowland forests

Mojave desert

New Zealand North Island temperate forests

Northern California coastal forests

Piney Woods

American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a loose, open, arching deciduous shrub of the southeastern and south-central United States, grown almost entirely for one spectacular autumn trick. Through summer it is a quiet green background plant, carrying small clusters of pink-to-lilac flowers tucked into the leaf axils. Then, from late summer into fall, those clusters ripen into tight whorls of vivid magenta-purple berries that wrap right around the stems at every leaf joint, so the arching branches look strung with beads. Songbirds strip them through fall and early winter. It is an easy, fast-growing, forgiving native that asks for little: full sun to part shade, ordinary well-drained soil, and room to arch. Site it where the fall berry show can be seen, because in leaf and flower it is plain, and in fruit it is one of the most distinctive shrubs you can grow.

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Water

Low water

Spacing

11.8"

Habit

Low, trunkless evergreen yucca whose rosettes of flat, flexible, pale blue-green leaves sit directly on the ground and multiply from branching underground stems into a loose colony, sending up a tall, branched flower stalk in late spring

Care tips

•

Give it soil that drains well: the Wildflower Center says that, like all yuccas, it needs good drainage, though it lists clay among its soils.

•

Plant it where it gets at least part of the day in sun if you want flowers; the Wildflower Center says it may not bloom as well in shade.

•

Keep the spine-tipped leaf ends away from the edge of a path; the leaves are flexible, but each ends in a yellow to brown spine (Wikipedia).

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant it in sun or part shade in dry, well-drained soil. The Wildflower Center lists sun and part shade, dry soil, clay and low water use, and says that like all yuccas it needs good drainage; it can be grown in a shade garden for its texture but may not flower as well as in more sun. In the wild the Flora of North America finds it on rocky prairies and uplands, rarely on limestone hills, at 328 to 1,312 feet.

Transplanting

No source checked here gives advice on moving this species. The Flora of North America describes each colony as rosettes joined by branching underground stems, so a young rosette with its own roots is the part to move.

Early growth

Water only to settle it in. The Wildflower Center rates its water use low and its soil moisture dry, and stresses good drainage.

Maturity

Wikipedia gives rosettes 8 to 20 inches tall and 12 to 31 inches across, with leaves 6 to 16 inches long, and the Flora of North America gives leaves 8 to 20 inches long. The Wildflower Center gives up to about 30 inches tall out of flower and about 6 feet in bloom; Wikipedia gives the flower stalk as 3.3 to 8.2 feet with up to 100 bells, and the Flora of North America as 2.3 to 3.9 feet. Flowering is in spring by the Flora of North America, and in May and June by the Wildflower Center.

Propagation

No source checked here describes how to propagate it. The Flora of North America says the rosettes arise from branching underground stems, which is how a colony grows in the wild.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Callicarpa americana

American beautyberry

Shrub

A short-lived native perennial of wet woodland edges, stream banks, and ditches across the Americas, named for the brilliant scarlet-red flowers that rise on erect, unbranched terminal spikes from mid-to-late summer. Each tubular, two-lipped bloom is shaped for the hummingbird tongue - the plant depends on ruby-throated hummingbirds for pollination because most insects cannot work the long flower tube. It demands constant moisture and tolerates brief flooding, but its foliage carries alkaloids that are very toxic to humans if eaten.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Lobelia cardinalis

Cardinal flower

Also called blue star, willow amsonia or woodland bluestar, this is a native perennial of the dogbane family from the eastern and south-central United States, where it grows in moist, sandy or rocky open woods, thickets, stream banks and ditches. It makes an erect, rounded clump of leafy stems 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, topped in spring by clusters of small, pale blue, star-shaped flowers and followed by slender, bean-like pods. The narrow, willow-shaped leaves may turn yellow to golden in fall. It grows slowly and stays where it is planted, and NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden both list it as tolerant of deer and drought: its stems and leaves carry a milky latex that herbivores avoid.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Amsonia tabernaemontana

Eastern bluestar

A long-lived native perennial of central and eastern US woodland borders and prairie meadows with deep blue pea-shaped flowers in late spring, blue-green leguminous foliage, attractive black seed pods for winter interest, and a nitrogen-fixing root system (Fabaceae). Larval host for 6 documented butterfly species per NC State (orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin, eastern tailed-blue, hoary edge, wild indigo duskywing) - among the highest Lep-host-count perennials in the eastern flora.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Baptisia australis

Blue false indigo

American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a loose, open, arching deciduous shrub of the southeastern and south-central United States, grown almost entirely for one spectacular autumn trick. Through summer it is a quiet green background plant, carrying small clusters of pink-to-lilac flowers tucked into the leaf axils. Then, from late summer into fall, those clusters ripen into tight whorls of vivid magenta-purple berries that wrap right around the stems at every leaf joint, so the arching branches look strung with beads. Songbirds strip them through fall and early winter. It is an easy, fast-growing, forgiving native that asks for little: full sun to part shade, ordinary well-drained soil, and room to arch. Site it where the fall berry show can be seen, because in leaf and flower it is plain, and in fruit it is one of the most distinctive shrubs you can grow.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Callicarpa americana

American beautyberry

Shrub

A short-lived native perennial of wet woodland edges, stream banks, and ditches across the Americas, named for the brilliant scarlet-red flowers that rise on erect, unbranched terminal spikes from mid-to-late summer. Each tubular, two-lipped bloom is shaped for the hummingbird tongue - the plant depends on ruby-throated hummingbirds for pollination because most insects cannot work the long flower tube. It demands constant moisture and tolerates brief flooding, but its foliage carries alkaloids that are very toxic to humans if eaten.

Sasanqua camellia is an evergreen shrub native to the forests of southern Japan - Kyushu, Shikoku, and the Ryukyu Islands - where it grows on forest margins and hillsides. In gardens it is prized as the earliest-flowering camellia, bearing fragrant blooms from September through January when almost nothing else is in flower, and it tolerates more sun and drought than its cousin Camellia japonica. The honest catch is cold hardiness: open flowers are blackened by hard frost, and the plant itself is reliably hardy only from zone 7a south, making it unsuitable for much of the northeastern and midwestern United States without meaningful shelter.

Shrub

A long-lived native perennial of central and eastern US woodland borders and prairie meadows with deep blue pea-shaped flowers in late spring, blue-green leguminous foliage, attractive black seed pods for winter interest, and a nitrogen-fixing root system (Fabaceae). Larval host for 6 documented butterfly species per NC State (orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin, eastern tailed-blue, hoary edge, wild indigo duskywing) - among the highest Lep-host-count perennials in the eastern flora.

Also called blue star, willow amsonia or woodland bluestar, this is a native perennial of the dogbane family from the eastern and south-central United States, where it grows in moist, sandy or rocky open woods, thickets, stream banks and ditches. It makes an erect, rounded clump of leafy stems 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, topped in spring by clusters of small, pale blue, star-shaped flowers and followed by slender, bean-like pods. The narrow, willow-shaped leaves may turn yellow to golden in fall. It grows slowly and stays where it is planted, and NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden both list it as tolerant of deer and drought: its stems and leaves carry a milky latex that herbivores avoid.

Amsonia tabernaemontana

Eastern bluestar

A native upright perennial of central + eastern North American prairies, woodland margins, and open woods producing tall vertical spires of white tubular flowers in late spring. The species name "digitalis" honors a flower-shape resemblance to true foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) - but Penstemon digitalis is NOT toxic in the same way (NC State explicit: "lacks the toxicity associated with foxglove"). Specialist Penstemon mason bee (Osmia distincta) relationship per NC State. The popular 'Husker Red' cultivar adds burgundy foliage for foliage-color design.