American Beautyberry for Borrow Pit Reclamation in South Carolina

Abstract

surface-mined sites. A beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a hardy, drought-tolerant shrub native to the southeastern United States from southern Maryland west to Tennessee and Oklahoma, south to Texas, Mexico, Florida, and the West Indies (Dirr, 1990; Foote and Jones, 1989; Radford et al., 1968). It is most common in the sandy lowlands of the southeastern Coastal Plain (Radford et al., 1968). In Florida and.adjacent states it is a "characterizing" shrub of the upland hardwood hammock plant association that is common over large areas of north and central Florida, southern Alabama and Georgia, and coastal areas of the Carolinas. ("Characterizing," according to the Soil Conservation Service, means that "this species so commonly occurs in a community that you would expect to see it there at most locations supporting that community" (Soil Conservation Service, 1989).) The upland hardwood hammock is a climax community with high species-diversity where few pines occur and hardwood trees dominate (Gano, 1917; Soil Conservation Service, 1989). Two associations at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina where our project was conducted are upland hardwood hammocks--the white oak-dogwood-pipsissewa and the white oak-post oak forest communities (Jones et al., 1981). Beautyberry also grows in the longleafpine/turkey-oak sand-hill association, in mixed hardwood and pine forests, in south Florida flatwoods, in cabbage palm flatwoods, and in wetland hardwood hammock plant communities in Florida and adjacent states (Soil Conservation Service, 1989). These diverse forest types provide a wide variety of feeding, nesting, and escape habitats for several animal species (Gilbert and Stout, 1983). In natural landscapes, beautyberry is usually found at the edges of woods (Brown & Tighe, 1991) and in forest openings resuiting from tree-fall and other natural disturbances. Beautyberry is also a common component of managed landscapeg such as hedgerows and roadsides (Martin et al., 1951). Beautyberry is in the Verbenaceae, the Verbena family, to which lantana (Lantana camara) and golden dewdrol5 (Durantarepens) also belong (Zona, 1994). American beautyberry is one of about 140 species of Callicarpa native to the tropics and mild-temperate zones of both the eastern and the western hemispheres (Zona, 1994). A number of observations and studies indicate that beautyberry has considerable value for wildlife. Beautyberry twigs and foliage are a minor component of the diet of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (Martin et al., 1951; Stribling, 1988). The fruit, a small, bright-violet, fleshy drupe (Radford et al., 1968), is a favored food of the robin (Turdus migratorius ) , mockingbird ( Mimus polyglottos ) , catbird (Dumatella carolinensis), brown thrasher ( Toxostoma rufum ) (Martin et al., 1951), and wild turkey (Meleagris gallo. pavo) (Kennamer et al., 1980), and is a mi-