SPICEBUSH
File Size: 101 KB
 
Lindera benzoin   (L. ) Blume
Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Height: 5-14 feet
Family: Lauraceae - Laurel Family
Flowering Period:   April
Trunks: Single, much branched; branches usually low; bark light grayish-brown, smooth; lentils raised.
Twigs: Gray green to brown, glabrous or pubescent, spice-like fragrance when broken; lenticels vertical, conspicuous; leaf scar half-round; bundle scars 3. Buds single or clustered, greenish-brown, ovoid; one leaf bud near leaf scar, flower buds slightly above it.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, deciduous, strongly aromatic; petiole .4 to .5 inch; blade elliptic to obovate, 1.6 to 6 inches long, .8 to 2.4 inches wide, pinnately veined, base wedge-shaped, margins entire, often ciliate, tip short acuminate to rounded, upper surface dark green, glabrous, lower surface pale, glabrous to pubescent.
Flowers: Appear before the leaves, dioecious. Staminate flowers in dense, nearly sessile clusters from buds of previous year, calyx lobes 6, yellow, obovate, 1/10 to 1/8 inch, tips fringed; corolla absent; stamens 9, one opposite each calyx lobe plus an inner row of 3 each with pair of yellow stalked glands at base; filaments greenish; anthers yellow. Pistillate flowers in clusters on wood of previous year; calyx lobes 6, yellow, oblong to ovate, ca. 1/10 inch, corolla absent; staminodes 12-18; ovary green, ovate; stigma brownish, capitate.
Fruit: September; drupe, solitary or in clusters of 2-4, bright red, oblong, 2/5 to 1/2 inch long, 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick, smooth, glossy, ends blunt, 1-seeded, strongly aromatic; seed ellipsoid to ovoid, brownish with dark blotches.
Habitat: Stream and river banks, low, moist woods, thickets, ravine bottoms, margins of wetlands; often in rich, moist soils
Distribution: Southeast corner of Kansas
Origin: Native
Uses: The fruits are eaten by migratory birds. Native Americans took decoctions or infusions of twigs and leaves for colds, coughs, measles, and to induce perspiration for aches and pains. A tea-like beverage was made from the leaves and twigs. According to Steyermark, the fruit was dried and powdered and used as allspice substitute during the Revolutionary War.
Comments: Perennial understory shrub. The wood is soft and greenish-yellow. All parts of this shrub have a strong spice aroma. Lindera honors Swedish botanist Johann Linder, 1676-1723.

Spicebush
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush flowers
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush flowers
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush flowering
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush leaf
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush buds
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush buds
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri
Spicebush fruit
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Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri