American beautyberry earns its name at both ends of its season. In spring and early summer it is modest enough — a loose, arching shrub with broad leaves and small lavender-pink flowers tucked along the stems, attracting bees and butterflies in modest numbers. Then September arrives and everything changes. The berries come in dense, jewel-bright clusters that ring each stem like a series of amethyst bangles, holding through November and feeding migrating songbirds and small mammals with generous abundance. Few plants transform a woodland edge so completely, or so reliably, over the span of a single season.

Native to the open woodlands, thickets, and pond margins of the central and southeastern United States, this deciduous shrub thrives in zones 6 through 10 and reaches 3 to 8 feet tall with a loosely arching habit. It tolerates most soils, provided drainage is reasonable, and does best in full sun to part shade. The most important maintenance note is also the most counterintuitive: cut it back hard, to about a foot, in late winter. Beautyberry fruits on new wood, so an annual haircut rewards you with more and showier berries by fall. As a bonus, the crushed leaves contain callicarpenal, a chemical found to repel mosquitoes, ticks, and fire ants — a discovery that gives this lovely plant an admirably practical second life.