Photo: Mac H. Alford, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Florida Anise

Illicium floridanum

Also called Florida anise tree, purple anise, anise tree.

A fast-growing evergreen for shade and wet ground, with leaves that smell of anise when crushed and nodding, dark red spring flowers.

EvergreenShowy flowersTolerates shadeTolerates wet soilHedge or screenWinter interestErosion control

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 6–10 ft
USDA zones: 6–10
Growth rate: Fast
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, the forest understory, rich moist slopes, floodplain forests, swamps and wet flats
Native range: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Florida anise is an evergreen shrub of shaded ravines on the Gulf coastal plain, and a close relative of the Chinese star anise sold as a spice. Its own leaves, pods and seeds are poisonous, so never use its star-shaped pods in place of the spice. Georgia lists it as endangered. Only two wild stands were ever found there, in 1966 and 1980, and neither has been seen in decades. On a shaded slope or bank the shrub helps control erosion. Mass it as an evergreen screen in the shade of tall trees, or along a wet woodland edge.

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows fast, nearly three feet a year in our growth estimator. It makes a dense, upright shrub 6 to 10 feet tall and 6 to 10 feet wide, and wild plants can become small trees of up to 26 feet. Its glossy, leathery leaves run 2 to 8 inches long on reddish stalks.

Nodding, dark red flowers up to 2 inches across open from late March into May, each with 20 to 30 narrow petals and a somewhat fishy smell. Flies carry the pollen, drawn by nectar and the scent. The star-shaped pods, 1 to 1.5 inches wide, ripen from late summer into fall and fling their seeds when they split.

It grows wild on the Gulf coastal plain from northwest Florida and Georgia west to eastern Louisiana, with one outlying stand in northeastern Mexico. Its home is stream banks, seeps and the lower slopes of moist, wooded ravines, where its suckers build dense thickets along the stream bottoms.

How to grow Florida Anise

Florida anise grows best in part shade and takes deep shade, though there it grows looser and more open. It takes full sun only where the soil stays evenly moist, and long hours of bright sun can scorch the leaves. It wants an acid soil rich in organic matter that stays moist, and it takes wet ground. Plant it 5 feet from a wall, and set plants 5 feet apart for a hedge or screen. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant in early spring or early fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch with leaves, clear of the stems. Sow the seed a quarter inch deep outdoors in fall, and it comes up the next spring. For spring, keep it damp in the refrigerator for two months first. Seedlings can take several months to appear.

Water weekly through the first two summers and in long dry spells after that. Deer usually leave it alone. Prune it once a year to keep its shape, or train it into a small tree on one or a few trunks. It spreads by root suckers, so cut them away where you want it to stop.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, but a plant sets little or no seed with its own pollen. A thicket grown from one root counts as one plant. Its aromatic leaves repel insects, and no serious pest or disease troubles it.

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

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