# Bog Spicebush (Lindera subcoriacea)

> A rare spicebush of southern seepage bogs, with thick leaves, pale yellow flowers before the leaves and bright red fruit on female plants.

Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bog-spicebush/

![Bog spicebush (Lindera subcoriacea) twigs with bright red and green oval fruit among the leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/bog-spicebush-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Kenneth L. Gordon, Public domain · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALindera_subcoriacea_fruit.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 6 to 13 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 8 to 9
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 8 states, north to Virginia, south to Florida and west to Louisiana (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia)
- Sun: Part, Full
- Soil moisture: Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Rare, Tolerates wet soil, Wildlife value
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Bog spicebush is a rare deciduous shrub of the laurel family and a cousin of our spicebush. It grows in seepage bogs, pocosins, bayheads and streamhead thickets on the coastal plain, from North Carolina to Florida and west to Louisiana. Its leaves are thicker than spicebush's, pale and hairy beneath and only faintly lemon-scented when young. Botanists described it only in 1983. NatureServe ranks it globally vulnerable, and Florida lists it as endangered. Grow it in a bog garden or at the soggy edge of a pond, where acid, peaty soil stays wet all year.

## Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, like our spicebush, about a foot and a half a year. It makes an upright shrub about 6 feet tall, and up to 13 feet in shade. Its leaves are 1.6 to 3 inches long, thick and somewhat leathery, dark green above and pale and hairy beneath.

Clusters of small, pale yellow flowers open on bare twigs from February to April, before the leaves. Female plants carry oval, bright red fruit about 0.4 inch long from July to September. Birds readily eat the fruit. The young leaves smell faintly of lemon when crushed, and older ones have almost no scent.

It grows wild in seepage bogs, pocosins, bayheads and streamhead thickets, usually with sphagnum moss. Most wild stands hold only one to five separate plants, each spreading by root suckers. Fire once kept taller shrubs from shading them, and some stands have been lost without it.

## How to grow Bog Spicebush

Bog spicebush grows in part shade or in the sun of open bogs. It needs acid, peaty soil that stays wet all year, like the seepage bogs where it grows wild. Set plants 5 feet apart and keep them 5 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Sow it as spicebush is sown. Clean the seed from the red berries and sow it outdoors in fall, a quarter to half an inch deep under mulch, before it can dry out. For a spring sowing, keep it in damp sand in the refrigerator for three to four months.

Keep it watered in any dry spell, since it grows wild in ground that never dries out. It needs no pruning, since root suckers replace the old stems in time.

Male and female flowers grow on separate plants and only females carry berries, so plant three to five seedlings to get both. Wild stands spread by root suckers and are often all male or all female, which lowers their chance of setting seed. Bees and flies carry the pollen of its relative spicebush. Laurel wilt, a fungus carried by an introduced beetle, blocks the water-conducting wood of laurel family plants, so the leaves wilt and the plant can die. It infects bog spicebush, though a 2015 review found no sign of it in Florida's wild stands. Remove any plant that wilts suddenly in summer, and never move firewood.

## Sources

- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Lindera subcoriacea, bog spicebush](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500749)
- [Florida Natural Areas Inventory: Field Guide, bog spicebush, February 2024](https://www.fnai.org/PDFs/FieldGuides/Lindera_subcoriacea.pdf)
- [Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Biodiversity Portal: Lindera subcoriacea, bog spicebush](https://georgiabiodiversity.org/portal/profile?group=plants&es_id=19894)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Lindera subcoriacea, Bog Spicebush](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.133279/Lindera_subcoriacea)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Lindera subcoriacea](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LISU8)
- [Alabama Plant Atlas: Lindera subcoriacea](http://www.floraofalabama.org/Plant.aspx?id=2525)
- [Atlas of Florida Plants: Lindera subcoriacea](https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/plant/species/4297)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Lindera chapter (Vankus, Brinkman and Phipps)](https://rngr.net/publications/wpsm/genera/l/at_download/file)
- [USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Plant Disease Recovery System: Recovery Plan for Laurel Wilt on Redbay and Other Forest Species, updated January 2015, compiled by M. A. Hughes and J. Smith](https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/00000000/opmp/Redbay%20Laurel%20Wilt%20Recovery%20Plan%20January%202015.pdf)
- [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Recovery Plan for Pondberry (Lindera melissifolia), 1993](https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/930923a.pdf)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Lindera, genus account](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/lindera/)
- [Florida Natural Areas Inventory: Element Tracking Summary, 6/18/2026](https://www.fnai.org/PDFs/tracking/element_tracking_summary_current.pdf)
- [Alabama Natural Heritage Program: 2023 tracking list](https://cosam.auburn.edu/biology/alnhp/_assets/2023_trackinglist.pdf)
- [Mississippi Natural Heritage Program: Special Plants, Tracking List, 2018](https://www.mdwfp.com/sites/default/files/2024-03/special-plant-tracking-list-2018.pdf)
- [North Carolina Natural Heritage Program: 2024 Rare Plant List, revised 11/03/2025](https://www.ncnhp.org/media/833/open)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Lindera subcoriacea](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/LISU8)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for butterflies and moths: host plants first, nectar second](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-butterflies-and-moths/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Bog Spicebush, add ?species=bog-spicebush with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=bog-spicebush&zone=8&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Bog Spicebush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=bog-spicebush): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=bog-spicebush
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Bog Spicebush is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=bog-spicebush
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Bog Spicebush needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=bog-spicebush:3
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Bog Spicebush flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.