Calycanthus floridus seed
LATIN NAME: Calycanthus floridus
COMMON NAME: Carolina Allspice
The Carolina allspice is the fragrant, old-fashioned shrub of the eastern woods, and its rounded, maroon-brown, many-petalled flowers carry a rich, spicy scent that fills the air around the bush in the late spring. The glossy, green leaves give the shrub a fine, neat look through the season, and the fruit is a curious, urn-shaped capsule that follows the flowers. The bark and the leaves carry the same warm, spicy fragrance when they are bruised. It is a fine, easy shrub for the cool, moist, sheltered border.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The Carolina allspice has a steady place in the botanical and the horticultural science. The fragrant compounds in the flowers, the bark and the leaves have been studied closely, and the plant keeps showing up in the work on the natural aromatics and the garden shrubs of the temperate world. The unusual, urn-shaped fruit and the many-petalled flower have also drawn the attention of the botanists, and the plant is a familiar subject of the studies of the old garden shrubs. The breeding of the garden forms and the hybrid selection are documented in the horticultural journals, so the growing advice is reliable.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
The Carolina allspice is valued for its rich, spicy scent and its fine, old-fashioned look, and it has been a favourite of the fragrant garden for a very long time. The flowers pull in the early bees and the butterflies, and the glossy foliage gives the shrub a fine presence through the season. The dried bark and the leaves have been used as a simple, mild spice in the old practice, and the shrub is an easy, dependable grower of the cool, moist border. It has been written about in the horticultural papers for its scent and its ease, and it is a generous, low-maintenance shrub.
The Carolina allspice grows wild in the moist woods of the east of the continent, and it has been carried into the gardens for its warm, spicy scent. The bark and the leaves carry a fragrance that has long been used as a simple, mild spice, and the flowers fill the air around the bush in the late spring. The unusual, urn-shaped fruit and the many-petalled, maroon-brown flowers give the shrub a fine, old-fashioned character, and it grows happily in the cool, moist, sheltered border with the sun or the light shade. It is a generous, easy shrub with a quiet, rich history.
To raise the Carolina allspice from seed, give the seeds a cold, damp spell first by mixing them with a little moist sand and keeping them in the fridge for a few weeks, then sow them at a shallow depth in pots of moist, free-draining soil. Keep the pots in a bright, cool, sheltered spot and water gently. The seedlings will show themselves before long and grow on into strong young shrubs over the first season or two. Give them a cool, moist, sheltered spot with the sun or the light shade, and they will reward the patience with the spicy, fragrant flowers.
Calycanthus plants are deciduous shrubs, growing 1–4 metres (3.3–13.1 ft) tall and wide. The bright green leaves are opposite, entire, 5–15 centimetres (2.0–5.9 in) long and 2–6 centimetres (0.79–2.36 in) broad.
The bark has a strong camphor smell that is released when stems are scraped. The smell remains strong on twigs that have been stored several years in a dry environment.
The strongly scented flowers are produced from late spring through early autumn for Calycanthus occidentalis, and April to July for Calycanthus floridus. They are 4–7 centimetres (1.6–2.8 in) broad, with numerous dark red to burgundy to purplish brown tepals. Typical of the Calycanthaceae family, the flowers lack distinct sepals and petals, but instead have distinct spirals of tepals.
The lotus-shaped flowers can resemble a small magnolia flower. They are pollinated by beetles in the Nitidulidae family.
The fruit is an elliptic dry capsule 5–7 cm long, containing numerous seeds.