Spicebush
Lindera benzoin
The forsythia of the woods: a haze of small yellow flowers on bare branches in earliest spring, spice-scented leaves that go clear butter yellow in fall, and the host plant of the spicebush swallowtail.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green · Gold and chartreuse
- Flower color
- Yellow · Red
- Sunlight
- Part shade; full sun with steady moisture
- Watering
- Moderate to high
- Soil
- Moist, fertile, humus-rich
- Feeding
- Gentle all-organic
- USDA zones
- 4b–9a
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- Plant spacing
- 8 ft 2 in
- In-row spacing
- 6 ft 7 in
- Between rows
- 9 ft 10 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 15–20 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
The habit is Spicebush’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- When
- Ripe red berries from female plants in September; a twig for tea whenever you pass.
- What to look for
- Berries glossy scarlet and slightly soft. The folded-leaf caterpillar shelters of summer are a sign to leave things exactly as they are.
- How to harvest
- Pick berries by hand, dry them whole and grind as needed: an allspice-and-pepper seasoning for the price of a walk. Prune only to shape, right after the early bloom.
- How often
- One September picking, sharing with the thrushes, who take the crop fast.
- Storing the crop
- Dried berries keep a year in a sealed jar. Fresh twigs and leaves steep into a pleasant citrusy tea any month of the year.
- Laurel wilt disease moving up from the Southeast is the one serious regional threat
Snap a twig and smell it: the whole plant is aromatic, and the red fruits on female plants are a genuine allspice-like seasoning. Look for leaves folded shut in summer; inside is a green caterpillar with cartoon eye-spots, which is the butterfly you planted it for.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com