Prolific Beautyberry

Hello Gardeners, I'm Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. We spent a few days near the coast recently and visited Brookgreen Gardens, where the plants are as interesting as the sculptures. You can use your pass for several days which was perfect - w e got there relatively early one morning and spent a few hours looking at sculpture leaving when the temperature got too high. The next day, we returned to see the native animals housed in the zoo. As most of those exhibits are in a wooded understory situation, we were spared the blazing rays of the sun. Of all the plants there, one of the most prolific was the native North American beautyberry, Callicarpa americana. In the late fall, this plant is dramatically noticeable as the stems are covered with clusters of bright pink-purple shiny berries. Right now the clusters of small flowers give no indication of the beauty that's ahead.