You can eat beautyberries now, but they will be riper in a few weeks.
![[Beautyberries, Callicarpa americana]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2025-09-14--beautyberries/20250914_125617.jpg)
Beautyberries, Callicarpa americana
They’re no longer mealy, and they have some flavor. They’re ripe enough to be made into jelly.
But in a few weeks they’ll be in full flavor. Even better then for eating or wine-making.
Callicarpa americana is native to the U.S. southeast, from Maryland to east Texas, plus Mexico and parts of the Carribean.
No, it’s not the same as pokeweed, which Continue reading
Beautyberry fruits are setting: the flower petals are falling off and revealing the berries.
Not only are the flowers and berries pleasing violet colors, the leaves repel insects and ticks, and you can make jelly and wine from beautyberries.
![[Beautyberry fruit setting, 2025:06:15 10:36:03]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2025-06-15--beautyberry/20250615_103603.jpg)
Beautyberry fruit setting, 2025:06:15 10:36:03
Once the berries get some color, you’ll see why it’s called beautyberry. They’re a pleasing violet color. The flowers are an even lighter violet. Also, the whole plant smells good. Continue reading
Update 2024-06-10: Yellow Dog’s rosemallow, three years later 2024-06-09
On our daily walk to the field, Yellow Dog encountered the first Swamp Rosemallow of the year, and perhaps the last Treat’s Rain Lily, while the Beautyberry remains in bloom.
![[Halberd-leaf rosemallow, Yellow Dog]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2021-06-12--rosemallow-yellow-dog-beautyberry-rain-lily/20210612_074654.jpg)
Halberd-leaf rosemallow, Yellow Dog
Cleanly, those porch dogs are. After a walk, Honeybun stuck her head under the bathwater and paddled furiously. Nervous Nellie seemed more inclined to get a drink.
Yes, that’s beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, around the dog beauty bath.
![[Honeybun and Nervous Nellie in the beautyberry bathtub]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2020-10-22--dogs-beautyberry-bath/20201022_191346.jpg)
Honeybun and Nervous Nellie in the beautyberry bathtub
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Around Okra Paradise Farms this morning.
![[Beautyberry with boats, bananas, and wood fire]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2020-10-04--beautyberry-banana-fire/many.jpg)
Beautyberry with boats, bananas, and wood fire
Also grapevine. And I keep pulling up Continue reading
Juniperus virginiana, Callicarpa americana:
Picture by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 16 May 2013.
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Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) growing next to corn (Zea mays): two very tasty plants!
This corn was planted by Terry Davis from seed kept in his family for 100 years.
Continue readingBeautyberry, Callicarpa americana, proven insect repellant!
Barbara Pleasant wrote for Mother Earth News April/May 2009, Beautyberry Banishes Bad Biting Bugs: Researches are finding evidence that beautyberry, long used as a folk remedy, really does deter bugs such as ants, ticks and others.
In 2006, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural
Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, Miss., found that extracts from beautyberry leaves could match DEET for repelling mosquitoes. The next year, experiments showed that the active ingredients from the leaves (callicarpenal and intermedeol) provided 100-percent repellency of black-legged ticks for three hours. In 2008, the four-person research team, headed by chemist Charles Cantrell in Mississippi and entomologist Jerome Klun in Maryland, published research that added fire ants to the list of pests repelled by essential oil distilled from beautyberry leaves….
Fresh green leaves, crushed and rubbed on people or pets, often repel insects for a couple of hours.
Looks like Charles L. Cantrell of U. Miss. has published several papers about this:
Continue reading
Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) at Okra Paradise Farms
by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 June 2008.
Growing along the stems of a green-smelling bush: Continue reading
![[Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2022-05-29--maypop-cherry-blueberry-fig-beautyberry/20220529_191222.jpg)