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Calycanthus
Also called Sweetshrubs
Calycanthus, or sweetshrub, is a genus of deciduous, aromatic shrubs in the Calycanth family, with two to four species (three widely accepted). Commonly grown members are Calycanthus floridus (Carolina allspice) and Calycanthus occidentalis (western sweetshrub), grown for their scented, dark-flowered blooms and as hedges or specimen shrubs.
Calycanthus, called sweetshrub, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Calycanthaceae. The genus includes two to four species depending on taxonomic interpretation; three are accepted by most 21st century sources.
Calycanthus species are cultivated as ornamental plants by plant nurseries, including in the United States and England.
Calycanthus floridus is planted in gardens, as a specimen shrub, or for hedges. The English naturalist Mark Catesby drew it as the support for the bird he called "Garrulus Carolinensis The Chatterer" (now Bombycilla cedrorum) in a work published from 1731 onwards. He described the shrub as growing in "remote and hilly parts" and having bark "as odoriferous as cinnamon". The colonial planters of the Carolinas transplanted it into their gardens, and the botanist Peter Collinson described it to Linnaeus and imported it into England from Charleston in the Province of South Carolina around 1756.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Calycanthus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
