Sweet Shrub

Calycanthus floridus 

Size: 3 & 7 Gallon Availability

Shrub
Max Size: 9′ tall x 12′ wide
Average Size: 8′ tall x 10′ wide

Very Moist, Usually Moist, Moist to Dry
Loam, Sand
Full Sun, Part Shade, Full Shade
No Salt Tolerance

AKA: Carolina Allspice, Pineapple Shrub, Strawberry Bush

This deciduous shrub has a yellow fall color and blooms pink in the spring with interestingly shaped flowers. It likes to produce suckers in ideal conditions, which need pruned if you don’t want it to spread. It prefers shade or extra watering in hot summer weather. The flowers give off a strawberry-like or pineapple-like scent when blooming and its pollinated by small sap beetles. The beetles are drawn by the scent of fermentation, and they work their way into the shade of the overlapping tepals to find food. The flowers are easy to enter but difficult to depart. Once trapped inside, the beetle picks up pollen. After the flower is pollinated, the inner parts of the flower fold back to release the beetle. By that point, the stigmas will have withered, and the beetle will move on to another flower in search of more food, ensuring cross-pollination (Arnold Arboretum).

The fragrant flowers can be used to make perfumes. The bark is also a substitute for cinnamon. It is cinnamon-clove scented (hence the common name Allspice); and can also be used in perfume making or as an aromatic stimulant.