Home Flora of Missouri
Home
Name Search
Families
Volumes
Callicarpa L. Search in The Plant ListSearch in IPNISearch in Australian Plant Name IndexSearch in Index Nominum Genericorum (ING)Search in NYBG Virtual HerbariumSearch in JSTOR Plant ScienceSearch in SEINetSearch in African Plants Database at Geneva Botanical GardenAfrican Plants, Senckenberg Photo GallerySearch in Flora do Brasil 2020Search in Reflora - Virtual HerbariumSearch in Living Collections Decrease font Increase font Restore font
 

Published In: Species Plantarum 1: 111. 1753. (1 May 1753) (Sp. Pl.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 8/25/2017)
Acceptance : Accepted
 

Export To PDF Export To Word

4. Callicarpa L. (beautyberry)

Plants shrubs, incompletely monoecious (producing staminate and apparently perfect but functionally pistillate flowers in the same inflorescences). Stems several, loosely ascending to more commonly arched, branched, the bark light brown to grayish brown, relatively smooth, but with scattered vertically-oriented lenticels, on the oldest trunks eventually separating into small, thin plates. Twigs more or less circular to bluntly 4-angled, reddish to purplish brown, sparsely to densely pubescent with minute, scurfy to woolly, short-stalked, stellate (dendritic) hairs, these wearing away with age. Winter buds ovoid, angled to a sharply pointed tip, the usually 2 outer scales obscured by dense stellate hairs. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3 at some nodes, shortly to moderately petiolate (1–35 mm), the petiole winged, at least above the midpoint, with a pungent, disagreeable odor when crushed. Leaf blades simple, unlobed, narrowly to broadly ovate, elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or occasionally lanceolate, tapered at the base, tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the margins with relatively coarse but sometimes shallow, blunt to sharp teeth, the surfaces moderately pubescent with mostly stellate hairs when young, sometimes mostly along the veins, also with inconspicuous, sessile glands, one or both surfaces becoming glabrous or nearly so at maturity, sometimes the stellate hairs shed but leaving the minute basal stalks. Inflorescences axillary, dense or open clusters or small, dome-shaped, dichotomously branched panicles, usually with numerous flowers, the flowers stalked, the stalk with a pair of bractlets at the base. Calyces actinomorphic, lacking a lateral projection, symmetric at the base, cup-shaped to broadly obconic, the tube more or less 4-angled, with obscure, branched nerves between the angles, very shallowly 4-lobed or sometimes entire, the lobes similar in size and shape, broadly triangular to broadly rounded (the margin appearing slightly undulate), not spinescent, not becoming enlarged at fruiting. Corollas actinomorphic, light pink to pale purple or blue (rarely reddish-tinged or white), the outer surface with sessile glands, the tube funnelform, the 4 lobes shorter than to longer than the tube, rounded to bluntly pointed at the tips and often slightly irregular along the margins. Stamens 4, present (but not necessarily functional) in all flowers, exserted, all similar in size, the filaments attached at the base of the corolla tube, the anthers small, the connective very short, the pollen sacs 2, parallel, yellow. Ovary present only in functionally pistillate flowers, unlobed, the style appearing terminal. Style exserted, unbranched at the tip, the stigma more or less capitate to peltate-flattened. Fruits fleshy, globose drupes 3–6 mm in diameter, the outer surface purplish red to pinkish purple, sometimes bluish-tinged, shiny, the stone eventually separating into usually 4 nutlets About 140 species, North America, Central America, South America, Caribbean Islands, Madagascar, Asia south to Australia.

As noted above, Callicarpa formerly was classified in the Verbenaceae, but has been transferred to the Lamiaceae, based on molecular data and a reassessment of the morphological features separating the family.

 
 
© 2024 Missouri Botanical Garden - 4344 Shaw Boulevard - Saint Louis, Missouri 63110