Callicarpa americana
Family: Verbenaceae
Plant Description: Deciduous shrub grows up to 2 m high with ovate to elliptic leaves 8-15 cm long with serrated edges; flowers, pink in color, grow in axillary clusters with the corolla measuring about 4 mm long; purple-violet fruits grow 4-6 mm wide.
Field Identification: Numerous stems growing out of the ground; shrub that may be found as understory or in open areas; stems greenish with small rough tubercles. Leaves large, fuzzy to the touch dark green on top, light on bottom, edge dentate (toothed), acuminate and attached to stem by pedicle. Leaves tend to line up opposite and lie in a plane. Fruit presented as copious dense bands of .5 cm purple balls (when mature).
Plant Trivia: Fruit is edible, but due to the large size of the sweet to fruit, only a sweet purple juice can be extracted.
Occurrence: frequent in coastal woods from Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to Flour Bluff, also within river bottom woods of San Antonio River
Bloom Period: Spring-Summer
Plant Use: bird and mammal food; nectar source for butterflies; landscaping plant
