Beautyberry fruits are setting: the flower petals are falling off and revealing the berries.

Not only are the flowers and berries pleasing violet colors, the leaves repel insects and ticks, and you can make jelly and wine from beautyberries.

Beautyberry fruit setting, 2025:06:15 10:36:03

Once the berries get some color, you’ll see why it’s called beautyberry. They’re a pleasing violet color. The flowers are an even lighter violet. Also, the whole plant smells good.

Color, Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), 2022-05-29

And no, not pokeberry: that has larger berries, which are redder, and pokeberry stems are purple. Don’t eat those; pokeberries are poisonous. Yes, you can make poke salad from the leaves, but that’s before the stems turn purple. So don’t confuse pokeberries and beautyberries.

Pokeberry (Phytolacca americana), 2018-08-05

When beautyberries get completely ripe in October, pick them and eat them. They have a subtle taste, but quite pleasing.

Berries of Callicarpa americana, 2020-10-04

Or make them into jelly or wine. You’ll be glad you did.

Beautyberries in a pot, 2021-09-10

We have plenty of beautyberries left on the wild plants for birds in winter.

If you rub the bottom of the leaf on you, it repels insects. We do this for our dogs to keep the yellowflies off.

When the leaves alone aren’t enough, we make a preparation by crushing beautyberry leaves, soaking them in alcohol for a few days. Vodka or even golden grain will do. Do NOT use rubbing alcohol: dogs will lick the preparation.

Drain the liquid into a squirt bottle and add vegetable oil such as olive or coconut.

The oil makes this concentrated beautyberry concoction stick, so it stays on the dogs’ ears (or your arms) and the bugs don’t bite.

It also repels mosquitoes and ticks, more effectively than Deet. See “Repellency of two terpenoid compounds isolated from Callicarpa americana (Lamiaceae) against Ixodes scapularis and Amblyomma americanum ticks,” John F. Carroll · Charles L. Cantrell · Jerome A. Klun · Matthew Kramer, March 13, 2007, Experimental and Appled Acarology (2007) 41:215–224, DOI 10.1007/s10493-007-9057-2. The insect-repellant specific compounds in beautyberry leaves are Callicarpenal (13, 14, 15, 16-tetranor-3-cleroden-12-al) and intermedeol [(4S,5S,7R,10S)-eudesm-11-en-4-ol].

Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, is easily recognizable by its leaves, opposite, with saw toothed edges, oval shaped yet pointed, up to a few inches wide and somewhat longer. The plants can grow eight feet tall.

Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, 2025:06:15 10:35:58

If you live in town, you may not have any of these, because developers scrape off all native plants before building houses. But if you have any wild foliage, look for beautyberry.

-jsq

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