{"title":"Spicebush (Lindera)","description":"\u003cp\u003eSpicebush is the shrub that tells you spring has started in an Eastern woodland. Small yellow-green flowers open along bare gray stems in March, well ahead of the dogwoods, and the whole plant smells of lemon and allspice when a leaf or a twig is broken. In autumn the foliage turns clear butter yellow and the fruit ripens to a hard scarlet drupe unusually rich in fat, which is precisely what a bird heading south is looking for.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLindera benzoin\u003c\/em\u003e is also the host plant for the spicebush swallowtail, whose caterpillar folds a leaf into a shelter and wears a pair of false eyespots convincing enough to startle a person, never mind a bird. The plants are dioecious, so fruit follows only where a male grows near a female. Beyond the native, the genus reaches into East Asia for evergreens: \u003cem\u003eLindera megaphylla\u003c\/em\u003e with long leathery leaves, and the fragrant \u003cem\u003eLindera fragrans\u003c\/em\u003e. Give the native moist shade and a woodland edge, and give the Asian species shelter.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"lindera-benzoin","title":"Lindera benzoin","description":"\u003cp\u003eSpicebush is the shrub that tells you the ground is good. Early land surveyors in the eastern states used \u003cem\u003eLindera benzoin\u003c\/em\u003e as an indicator of rich agricultural soil, and the rule holds in the garden: where spicebush thrives, most things will. The plant is a common understory shrub of moist, rich woods from Ontario to Florida and west to Texas, growing six to twelve feet in a loose rounded mass, often colonial from root sprouts, and every part smells of citrus and pepper when bruised.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flowers come first, in March or early April, small greenish-yellow clusters held tight against bare gray stems, a haze of color across the woods before anything leafs out. Spicebush is dioecious, so male and female flowers occur on separate plants, and only females carry the scarlet drupes that follow in late summer. Our plants are seedlings of undetermined sex, so a group planting is the surest route to fruit. Wood thrushes, veeries, and better than twenty other bird species strip the berries, which are unusually rich in lipids and time their ripening to fall migration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe name carries two histories. Carl Peter Thunberg established the genus in 1783 for Johann Linder, a Swedish botanist and physician; the epithet \u003cem\u003ebenzoin\u003c\/em\u003e comes through Middle French from the Arabic luban jawi, \"frankincense of Java,\" borrowed for the balsamic scent of the leaves and twigs. Colonists knew the shrub as fever bush and wild allspice, drying the ripe drupes as an allspice substitute and steeping the twigs into tea. Creek, Cherokee, Rappahannock, Mohegan, Iroquois, and Chippewa people used bark, twigs, and fruit across more than thirty recorded medicinal preparations, and also to flavor game.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor the gardener, spicebush is a three-season native with an outsized ecological return. The shrub is the primary host of the spicebush swallowtail, whose caterpillars fold themselves into leaf tents and wear a pair of false eyespots convincing enough to read as a small snake, and the promethea silkmoth spins cocoons among the twigs that hang on all winter looking like dead leaves. Fall color is a clean unmixed yellow, luminous in shade. Plant spicebush at a woodland edge, along a stream, or in any semi-shaded place with steady moisture, in groups rather than as a lone specimen, and allow room to sucker gently outward.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhotos courtesy of William Friedman and John Anderson.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057911959667,"sku":"LIND-BENZ-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/LinderabenzoinArnoldArboretum.jpg?v=1725388738"},{"product_id":"lindera-fragrans","title":"Lindera fragrans","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLindera fragrans\u003c\/em\u003e is an evergreen shrub or small tree carrying glossy, leathery, narrowly lance-shaped leaves that look more like bamboo than like anything in the laurel family, each one marked with three clear veins running the length of the blade. The effect is light and linear where most broadleaf evergreens are heavy, and the foliage alone is worth the space. Growth is upright to around twelve or fifteen feet with a narrow six-foot spread, and the bark is a quiet yellow-brown.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis plant came to us through the Arnold Arboretum, and so far as we know Woodlanders is probably the first nursery in the United States to have offered the species. The shrub has grown well here in Aiken, South Carolina, in a semi-shaded site with well-drained soil, which is the only cultivation record most American gardeners have to go on. Native to southern China at elevations between roughly seven hundred and two thousand meters, \u003cem\u003eLindera fragrans\u003c\/em\u003e remains almost unknown in cultivation on this side of the Atlantic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLindera\u003c\/em\u003e belongs to Lauraceae, the laurel family, in the company of sassafras, bay, avocado and cinnamon, and the family trait is aromatic tissue: crush a leaf or scratch a twig and the spice comes up at once, which is where every spicebush gets the common name. The genus honors Johann Linder, an eighteenth-century Swedish botanist. Like the rest of the genus this species is dioecious, male and female flowers on separate plants, and the flowers themselves are small, yellow and petalless, opening in spring with a fragrance the epithet promises. Female plants follow with small drupes that ripen from blue-green to purple-black in early autumn. The Chinese spicebushes have a long history in traditional medicine, but that tradition attaches to other species in the genus and we make no medicinal claim for this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive \u003cem\u003eLindera fragrans\u003c\/em\u003e the conditions that have worked here: semi-shade, well-drained soil with organic matter, and shelter from hard winter wind, which will burn evergreen foliage faster than cold alone. Use the narrow upright habit where a tall evergreen is wanted in a tight space, at a woodland edge, or as a foliage counterpoint among camellias, mahonias and ferns. Hardy through USDA zones 8 to 9, and one honest caution comes with a plant this little grown: the hardiness limits are an estimate from a small sample rather than a settled figure, so anyone gardening at the cold edge is experimenting alongside us. For the collector, that is most of the appeal.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057912189043,"sku":"LIND-FRAG-01G","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-441.jpg?v=1720139340"},{"product_id":"lindera-strychnifolia","title":"Lindera strychnifolia","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis quietly handsome evergreen has grown well for years in the Woodlanders garden here in Aiken, South Carolina, holding a place in semi-shade where many broadleaf evergreens sulk. The spicebush earns a spot on foliage alone: glossy, leathery leaves, roughly heart-shaped and about three inches across, each marked by three bold veins, with new growth flushing a soft bronze before deepening to green.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLindera strychnifolia belongs to Lauraceae, the aromatic laurel family, in the company of cinnamon, sassafras, bay laurel, and the American spicebush, and every part of the plant carries that family's spicy scent. Botanists now file the species as Lindera aggregata, keeping strychnifolia as a synonym; the old epithet means simply Strychnos-leaved, a nod to the shape of the foliage and not, despite the sound of the word, any hint of strychnine. Small greenish-yellow flowers gather in early-spring umbels along the branches, modest rather than showy, and where male and female plants grow together the females ripen small drupes that darken from red to black.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn China the plant answers to another name entirely, wu yao, and there the real fame lies underground. The tuberous root has been a staple of traditional Chinese medicine since the Song dynasty, with the finest material long associated with the Tiantai hills of Zhejiang, so prized that the best grade still travels under the name Tiantai wu yao. Classed among the herbs that regulate qi, the root was used to warm the body's core and ease cold-natured pains of the belly and lower abdomen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor all that medicinal weight, in an American garden Lindera strychnifolia is simply an excellent, uncommon broadleaf evergreen, still rare in the trade and passed mostly through arboreta and specialist growers. Set the shrub in part shade to shade, in moist, lime-free soil enriched with leaf mold, and site the plant so low light can catch the pale undersides of the leaves. Reaching six to ten feet, the spicebush makes a glossy anchor for a woodland edge or a shaded border, aromatic in the hand and evergreen through the Southern winter.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057912254579,"sku":"LIND-STRY-01G","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Linderastrychnifolia.webp?v=1784327079"},{"product_id":"lindera-megaphylla","title":"Lindera megaphylla","description":"\u003cp\u003eLindera megaphylla is a plant for the patient collector, a broad-leaved evergreen of real presence and pedigree that reveals itself over seasons rather than days. The species comes from the mist-laden mountain forests of western China, where the shrub grows in dappled light among rhododendrons and ancient oaks. Sir Harold Hillier, the great British plantsman, first shared this rarity with Western gardens in the 1970s from his famous nursery, and even now the Chinese spicebush remains uncommon in cultivation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the most imposing members of the laurel family, Lauraceae, Lindera megaphylla grows slowly into a large, upright shrub or small tree. The name says everything about the leaves: megaphylla means large-leaved, and the long, leathery, deep green blades can pass a foot in length, held in whorled clusters that build a lush, layered canopy. Even in winter the evergreen foliage keeps a polished richness, catching low light and standing firm against wind and cold.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSmall yellow-green flowers emerge in early spring, subtle but botanically charming, and on a female plant with a male nearby they are followed by dark drupes. Like the North American spicebush, Lindera benzoin, this Chinese cousin serves as a host plant for swallowtail butterflies, bringing life and movement to the quiet corners where the shrub is happiest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBest planted in moist, acidic, well-drained soil in light shade to filtered sun, Lindera megaphylla is made for the woodland garden, the shade border, or a place where structure and foliage matter more than fleeting bloom. Set the bold evergreen where the architectural leaves can be admired at close range, backed by deciduous trees or paired with rhododendrons, camellias, and ferns for a layered, all-season planting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor the gardener who values the rare and the enduring, few evergreens repay the wait so handsomely. Photo courtesy of John Grimshaw.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057912352883,"sku":"LIND-MEGA-01G","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/lindera-megaphylla-7JohnGrimshawWoodlanders1.jpg?v=1749157729"},{"product_id":"lindera-akoensis","title":"Lindera akoensis","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn evergreen spicebush is a rare thing, and Lindera akoensis is one of the best. Woodlanders grew this shrub from cuttings taken in the garden of Bobby Green of Green's Nursery in Fairhope, Alabama, shared simply as an evergreen Lindera from Taiwan. The plant matches the botanical description of Lindera akoensis, a species of low mountain woodland in Taiwan, and has proven a handsome, glossy-leaved evergreen for the southern garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLindera belongs to the laurel family, Lauraceae, in company with bay, sassafras, and the North American spicebush, and shares the family gift of aromatic oils: crush a leaf and the spicy, resinous scent rises at once. The genus honors Johann Linder, an early Swedish botanist, while the epithet akoensis records Ako, the old name for the Pingtung region of southern Taiwan where the species grows. Like the familiar eastern spicebush, Lindera benzoin, the evergreen kinds are dioecious, carrying male and female flowers on separate plants.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early spring, small pale yellow flowers open in clusters along the branches before the flush of new growth, modest to the eye but sweetly spicy and welcome to the season's first bees. On a female plant with a male nearby, the flowers give way to small red fruit later in the year, glowing against the deep green, elliptical, glossy leaves. The foliage holds through winter with a polished richness, and the whole shrub carries the warm spicebush fragrance that makes the genus such a pleasure to brush past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive Lindera akoensis a sunny or lightly shaded border and moist, well-drained soil, and the shrub settles into a dense evergreen of eight to ten feet, useful as a screen, an anchor at the woodland edge, or a quiet evergreen backbone among deciduous companions. Plants like this one are the whole point of Woodlanders: the chance for a keen gardener to grow something rare and little known, seldom found through the usual sources, and to help keep an uncommon plant in cultivation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057912549491,"sku":"LIND-AKOE-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1978.jpg?v=1720139353"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/lindera.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}