Callicarpa americana (American beautyberry)

Japanese name: カリカルパ アメリカーナ
Scientific name: Callicarpa americana

[Overview]
A deciduous shrub reaching about 0.9–1.5 m in both height and spread.
The branches usually spread in an arch.
The twigs are densely covered with pale yellowish brown stellate or branched hairs, which gradually fall off.
The leaves are simple and opposite, ovate to elliptic, 5–22 cm long and 2–12 cm wide, with serrated margins.
The upper surface of the leaves is at first covered with stellate hairs, and the underside has hairs and glandular dots.
The petiole is 0.5–3.5 cm long, longer than the flower stalk, and is usually densely covered with stellate hairs.
Cymes are borne in the leaf axils, and each inflorescence has a stalk 0.1–0.5 cm long.
The flowers are small, pale pink to purple or tinged with blue; the corolla is 4-lobed, and the 4 stamens project far out.
The fruit is spherical, 3–6 mm in diameter, and ripens to a glossy, beautiful reddish purple, rarely white.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed or by cuttings.
It prefers a sunny, well-drained, moderately moist, fertile soil.
It tolerates partial shade, but if sunlight becomes poor, flowering and fruiting are reduced.
In cold regions the aboveground parts may die back in winter, but if the ground does not freeze, it sprouts again in spring.
Established plants tolerate dryness, so rainfall is sufficient unless sunny weather continues in summer and the soil dries out.
Scale insects may attach to it.

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