Homegrown Habitat, March 2024: Spicebush
Spicebush typically inhabits moist woodlands, streambanks, and floodplains, but it will take a variety of soil and light conditions. Photo by Dan Keck from Ohio – Spicebush, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83447645
With spring plants sprouting and turning green earlier and earlier these days, it’s time to look for the beautiful flowers of the Spicebush. Sarah Middeleer has chosen it for Homegrown Habitat this month. As always, she loves to hear from readers and is happy to answer your questions: homegrown@ctaudubon.org
The tiny, lemon-yellow flowers of spicebush (Lindera benzoin) brighten the landscape just when we need them the most—when wintry weather lingers, and the warmth of spring seems a distant memory from last year.
This shrub, also known as northern or common spicebush, is native from southeast Canada to eastern and central U.S. It is aptly named–for if you crush a leaf or scratch the stem, a tart, intriguing aroma will greet you. But its sculptural beauty and value to wildlife make spicebush an even more appealing shrub to add to the garden.
Spicebush typically inhabits moist woodlands, streambanks, and floodplains, but it will take a variety of soil and light conditions. In the wild a frequent companion plant is witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). In shade, spicebush will grow in a more open (although artfully attractive) habit and its flowers will be less profuse. Given more light, it will fill out more densely and will flower more heavily. If spicebush is grown in full sun it may benefit from irrigation during droughts.
Spicebush flowers appear in March before the shrub leafs out. Photo by R. A. Nonenmacher – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36871527
The flowers appear in March before the shrub leafs out. Spicebush is, like the hollies, dioecious—meaning that male and female flowers appear on separate plants. The female plant will produce shiny, scarlet fruits called drupes that mature in September and are an important food source for migrating thrushes, particularly Veeries. Gray Catbirds also love the fruit. On both male and female plants the fall foliage is bright yellow.
Spicebush also serves as a host plant (where adults will lay eggs and the resulting larvae will eat the leaves) for 12 species of moths and butterflies, including the spicebush swallowtail and Eastern swallowtail butterflies and the promethea moth. Frequent readers of this column will no doubt remember that a host plant supports caterpillars, which are a critical food source for baby birds. Chickadees require 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars for their offspring in a single nest: 350-570 per day for the 16 to 18 days until the chicks fledge.
Spicebush swallowtail can use only spicebush or sassafras trees, both in the Lauracea family, as host plants. If you notice a rolled leaf on one of these plants in mid- to late- summer, the dramatically marked green and yellow spicebush swallowtail caterpillar—with its huge, false eye spots—might be tucked inside to avoid predators. Please don’t disturb it.
Spicebush grows slowly to a height of six to 12 feet and can be used in the woodland understory, mixed borders, rain gardens, fragrance gardens, and healing gardens. It is salt tolerant. Spicebush makes a handsome specimen, and having several on your property can help ensure that some will bear fruit. Its natural inclination is to form colonies, which provide excellent bird habitat. Consider planting Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), windflower (Anemone canadensis), and ferns nearby.
The unusual aroma lending spicebush its name comes from compounds called terpenes, also called essential oils. The bark, twigs, leaves, and fruit of spicebush have traditionally been used to make tea and folk medicines and are a potent source of vitamin C. The flesh of the fruit, with or without the single seed held within, has been used as a substitute for allspice and even to flavor homemade ice cream. Thanks to the terpenes, deer and rabbits find spicebush unpalatable.
Spicebush Swallowtails are dependent on spicebush or sassafras for metamorphosis (although these flowers are neither). Photo by Michael Audette
Resources
Books
Mark Richardson and Dan Jaffe, Native Plants for New England Gardens, Globe Pequot, 2018
Edith A. Roberts and Elsa Rehmann, American Plants for American Gardens, the Macmillan Company, 1929, and University of Georgia Press, 1996
Jared Rosenbaum, Wild Plant Culture A Guide to Restoring Edible and Medicinal Native Plant Communities, New Society Publishers, 2023
Douglas W. Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home How You Can Susstain Wildlife with Native Plants, Timber Press, 2009
Articles
Douglas W. Tallamy, “The Chickadee’s Guide to Gardening,” March 11, 2015, The New York Times
Websites
https://vnps.org/2006-spicebush-lindera-benzoin/
https://www.gardenia.net/guide/spicebush-swallowtail
https://nativeplantfinder.nwf.org/Plants/1953
