Callicarpa bodinieri – Bodinier Beauty Berry – Beautyberry –

Description

Callicarpa – Beautyberry – There are about 140 species of evergreen and deciduous shrubs and small trees, in this genus. They occur from woodland in mainly tropical and subtropical region as well as temperate regions of Eastern Asia and North America. They have opposite, conspicuously veined, toothed, leaves with downy undersides and bear dense, axillary cymes or panicles of numerous tiny, white, pink, red, or purple flowers in spring or summer. They are untidy in growth. They are grown for their flowers and clusters of small but often highly colorful shiny, spherical, white, mauve to purple, bead like fruits, to 1/8″ across, which persist into winter, they are ideal for a shrub border, they fruit most prolifically in long, hot summer and if planted in groups. Where not hardy grow indoors in winter and move outdoors in summer. Grow in fertile, moist but well drained soil in sun or dapple shade. Cut back older branches, in late winter. Prone to cottony camellia scale, black mildew, dieback, leaf scorch, and Lercospora leaf spots. C. bodinieri – Bodinier Beauty Berry – This upright deciduous bushy shrub from Western and Central China grows to 6-10′ feet tall and wide. It has smooth, 8″ toothed, dark green leaves, with paler, downy undersides, which turn golden in autumn. It bears showy, small, dense sprays of lilac flowers followed by bluish mauve to purple fruit. Zones 5-9