FAMILY: LAURACEAE
ALTERNATE COMMON NAME: northern spicebush
LEAVES: deciduous, alternate, simple, short petiolate; blades oval to obovate, thin, 1.5-3” long by 1-2.5” wide, margins entire; leaves aromatic with a citrus-like odor
FLOWER: unisexual, plants dioecious, flowers yellow, small and born in supra-axillary roundish clusters appearing in March prior to leafing-out
FRUIT: lustrous, bright red drupe, ellipsoidal in shape, 0.3-0.4” long; drupes on pedicels (stalks) to 0.15” which are slightly dilated where attached to drupes; fruits maturing in (August-) September
TWIGS: aromatic; first year branchlets pubescent, becoming glabrous, glabrous, grayish to brown, bearing slightly raised, paler lenticels; later in the growing season, three supra-axillary buds develop on first-year twigs, the central smaller bud becoming a short shoot, and the larger lateral buds developing into inflorescences the following spring
BARK: light brownish gray, smooth
FORM: shrub to 15’ tall (rarely an understory tree)
HABITAT: mesic rich soils, high sites in bottomland hardwood forest, southern mesophytic hardwood forest, rarely in forested seeps
WETLAND DESIGNATION: Facultative Wetland (FACW): Usually occurs in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plain Region
RANGE: eastern US [County Range Map]
USES: substitute for allspice once made from ground leaves; ornamental
WILDLIFE: browsed by whitetail deer and rabbits, fruit reportedly eaten by many birds
Best Recognition Features:
- deciduous shrub with thin, aromatic leaves
- supra-axillary buds developing late in growing season on first-year twigs
- yellowing flowers appearing before leaves erupt
- red ellipsoidal drupes in late summer and fall
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