Callicarpa L.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Callicarpa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/callicarpa/). Accessed 2025-11-08.

Family

Lamiaceae

Species in genus

Glossary

References

POWO (2025). Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Callicarpa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/callicarpa/). Accessed 2025-11-08.

Callicarpa japonica with Amsonia hubrichtii at the Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. 10 November 2017. Image Paul W. Meyer.

A genus of about 160 species of shrubs or small trees found wild in N. and Central America, E. Asia, Australia, and Malaya (POWO 19/5/2025). The name is given in reference to the beauty of the fruits, for which the following species are mainly cultivated. Leaves opposite. Formerly placed in Verbenaceae, but transferred to Lamiaceae in the 1990s on the basis of early molecular studies.

Callicarpa americana is an arresting sight when in fruit; it deserves to be more widely cultivated both at home and abroad. Scott Arboretum, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. 31 October 2025. Image Tom Christian.

Callicarpa bodinieri in fruit at Alexandra Park, Hastings, UK; 23rd October 2022. Image Owen Johnson.

The white fruited form of Callicarpa dichotoma. Jardin des Plantes, Nantes, France, where it was growing in dappled shade beneath mature trees. 6 October 2023. Image Tom Christian.

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