spicebush

Photo: Jason Hollinger — CC BY 2.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Spicebush berries = an allspice-like SPICE; sassafras leaves = filé powder. Not dessert fruits. Dried drupes as an allspice-like spice.

Hardiness

Zone 4–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Leaf, Fruit

Ripens

Autumn

Mature size

Shrub/small tree 2–4 m

Light

Partial — tolerates heavy shade, but more sun means more berries

Soil pH

5.0–6.5 (acid)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Eastern North America, from Maine and Ontario south to Florida and Texas — moist woodland understorey, streamsides and rich bottomland, usually in shade.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, obovate 6–15 cm, entire-margined, soft and thin, and intensely spicy-citrus when crushed — the crushed-leaf test is the identification, since nothing else in an eastern American woodland smells like it. Clear yellow in autumn.

Root system

Shallow and fibrous with a modest taproot, and strongly suckering — a cut or burnt plant regrows from the root as a clump rather than dying, which is how these shrubs hold ground in the understorey and why one plant becomes a colony.

Fruit description

Glossy scarlet drupes 8–10 mm, ripening in autumn on female plants and stripped fast by migrating thrushes. ⚠ Not a dessert fruit: dried and ground, the drupes are a genuine allspice-like spice, warm and peppery, and the leaves and twigs make a good tea. The plant is also the larval host for the spicebush swallowtail.

Propagation

Seed sown fresh in autumn — it must not dry out, and needs a cold winter to germinate. Softwood cuttings in early summer under mist work moderately well. Layering is easy. Dioecious, so plant both sexes for berries.

Pollination

DIOECIOUS — needs male and female plants

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.