Illicium mexicanum

The Mexican Illicium is a close relative of the southeastern native Illicium floridanum, and the differences are worth having. The leaves are longer and somewhat more pointed, glossy and aromatic when bruised. The flowers are slightly larger and a deeper red, with the same many-strapped starry outline, and where Florida anise is largely finished by late spring these carry on through summer. The habit is an evergreen small tree or large shrub, ten to twelve feet in time, upright and narrow at four to six feet across, holding good dark foliage the whole year in the shade where the plant belongs.

How this species reached American gardens is a genuinely good story, and it is not ours. A number of years ago a government employee in Washington, D.C. named Harold Hopkins found the native Illicium floridanum on a visit to his home area in Mississippi. He brought a sample to the U.S. National Arboretum to be identified. He then studied up on the genus Illicium and discovered that there was a species in Mexico which was unknown in the U.S. He established contact and communication with someone in Mexico who was able to collect the plant from the wild and send it to him. He delivered it to the National Arboretum and they shared it with Woodlanders, where it was propagated and offered to the American gardening public. It was subsequently collected in Mexico by Yucca-Do Nursery in Texas. Learning that Illicium was related to Magnolia, Mr. Hopkins went on to study Magnolia and became president of the American Magnolia Society.

A word on names and on safety. Some authorities now treat the Mexican plants as a southern extreme of Illicium floridanum rather than a separate species, which is why you will occasionally see this sold under that name; the horticultural differences hold up regardless of where the line is finally drawn. As for the anise in the common name, it refers only to the scent of the crushed leaf. This is not the culinary star anise, which is Illicium verum and the single member of the genus that is safe to eat. The rest, including this one, carry neurotoxic sesquiterpene lactones, and no part of the plant should ever be used in food or tea. Grow it for the flowers and the foliage and leave the kitchen out of it.

Plant in shade or semi-shade in good soil that drains but never dries out hard; this is a woodland understory plant and full sun scorches the leaves and bleaches the gloss out of them. The narrow upright habit suits a shaded foundation, a woodland path, a courtyard, or a spot beside a north door where the evergreen structure earns its keep in winter. Deer leave the whole genus alone, which in most southern gardens is reason enough on its own. Good with Danae racemosa, hellebores, autumn fern, Aspidistra, and hydrangeas. Give a mulch each autumn and otherwise very little is asked of you.