# @ahs_gardening on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DL28zEBTD7T
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/55035980-ahs-gardening-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/8cf219d1c0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-07-08T19:30:21.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** American Horticultural Society | American Gardener Magazine (@ahs_gardening) — https://gondola.cc/ahs_gardening

## Caption

🌿 NATIVE PLANT OF THE WEEK ⁠
American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana, Zones 7-10) ⁠
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This low-maintenance deciduous shrub isn’t just nice to look at. The American beautyberry attracts and supports wildlife and contains historically used medicinal properties. This member of the mint family boasts long, arching branches that present small pink flowers in mid-summer, and purple berries in mid-September.⁠
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📍  Native to the southeastern United States from Texas and Oklahoma to Maryland and Florida. It can also be found in the Caribbean and northern Mexico. ⁠
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🌱 Grows between 3–5 feet tall and can grow just as wide! With favorable conditions—moist, well-drained soil and full sun—it can grow as tall as 9 feet. It grows naturally in the woods and thrives in moist areas like thickets and fence rows. ⁠
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🐦️ American beautyberry seeds and berries are a great source of food for birds like the American robin, brown thrasher, purple finch, and eastern towhee. White-tailed deer also love to snack on the foliage. ⁠
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❓️ Did You Know? The leaves of the American beautyberry can serve as a pest-deterrent thanks to two compounds—callicarpenal and intermedeol. Bug repellants are being developed from beautyberry plant extracts, but you can make your own by soaking the leaves in alcohol or boiling them. When crushed, they have a strong citronella lemon smell. ⁠
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🫐 While the berries themselves are not very flavorful, you can mix them with sugar, water, and pectin to create beautyberry jelly. ⁠
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💡 Pro tip: Plant American beautyberry as a background or border plant to fill out your garden. It can also thrive as an understory plant in areas with more moisture. ⁠
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📸 creds: ⁠
Jen Dyer, iNaturalist⁠
Susan Lordi Marker ⁠
Charlotte Watson Sanders, iNautralist ⁠
MSU Extension/Eddie Smith⁠
Darryl Neill ⁠
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#NativePlantOfTheWeek #Americanbeautyberry #GrowNative #AmericanGardener #AHSGardening #Native Plants

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## Tags

native, ahsgardening, nativeplantoftheweek, americanbeautyberry, grownative, americangardener

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