# Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)

> Yellow flowers in March, spicy-scented leaves, red berries for thrushes and the host plant of the spicebush swallowtail.

Also called northern spicebush, wild allspice. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/spicebush/

![Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) green unripe berries along a twig](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/spicebush-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Jomegat, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lindera_benzoin_4781.JPG)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 6 to 12 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 9
- Grows wild in: The forest understory, stream banks and floodplain forests
- Native range: 32 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC))
- Sun: Part, Shade, Full
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: March to April
- Fruit: Berries, August to September
- First crop: 4 to 5 years
- Mature spread: 12 ft
- Traits: Wildlife value, Showy flowers, Fall color, Tolerates shade, Tolerates wet soil, Erosion control, Bears young
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Shade Understory Pack.

## Notes

Spicebush is the backbone of a shady native garden. It blooms before the forsythia, turns clear yellow in fall, and its high-fat berries fuel migrating birds. On a stream bank it quickly holds the soil in place. Ideal for replacing bush honeysuckle in a woodlot, or as a swallowtail host planting by the creek.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Spicebush blooms before its leaves, in March, when clusters of tiny, fragrant, greenish-yellow flowers open along the bare twigs and male plants carry the larger, showier ones. It makes a rounded shrub 6 to 12 feet tall and as wide. Expect roughly a foot and a half of new height a year in its youth on an average site, the rate our growth estimator assumes for a medium shrub. It grows looser and spreads more in heavy shade. Female plants bear their first sizable crop of berries at 4 to 5 years from seed.

Only females set fruit, and they need a male nearby. The glossy red drupes, up to a half inch long, ripen in August and September, and songbirds take them during fall migration. The leaves feed the caterpillars of the spicebush swallowtail, the palamedes swallowtail and the promethea silkmoth. Wild allspice, its other name, comes from the spicy scent of the crushed leaves and twigs.

It grows wild from New England and Ontario south to Florida and west to Texas, Kansas and Iowa, in low woods, ravines and swamps and along streams.

## How to grow Spicebush

Spicebush grows anywhere from deep shade to full sun, in moist or wet soil. Shade keeps it open; sun makes it dense and colors it better. Plants grow as wide as they are tall, so set them 6 feet apart and that far from a wall.

Plant dormant bare-root or potted shrubs 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 ring clear of the stems. No stake, no fertilizer. 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.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Deer mostly pass spicebush by, but rabbits nip young stems in winter, so cage it low for two years and keep mulch thin near the stems so voles do not nest there. It flowers on old wood, so any shaping should wait until just after the early spring bloom.

Male and female flowers grow on separate plants and only females carry berries, so plant three to five seedlings to get both. Swallowtail caterpillars roll the leaves in summer; leave them. In the Southeast, laurel wilt, the disease killing redbay and sassafras, can also strike spicebush; remove any plant that wilts suddenly in summer.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Lindera benzoin](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lindera-benzoin/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Lindera benzoin](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=d890)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Lindera benzoin](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=libe3)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Lindera benzoin](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/LIBE3)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Lindera chapter, Vankus, Brinkman and Phipps](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Lindera.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: spicebush, Lindera benzoin](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_libe3.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Lindera benzoin, Northern Spicebush](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.139731/Lindera_benzoin)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Lindera benzoin](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/lindera/benzoin/)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Lindera benzoin, Sutton (2023)](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/lindera/lindera-benzoin/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: spicebush](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/spicebush/)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Lindera benzoin](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500747)
- [Native Plant Network propagation protocol: Lindera benzoin, Kujawski and Davis 2001, USDA NRCS National Plant Materials Center](https://npn.rngr.net/renderNPNProtocolDetails?selectedProtocolIds=lauraceae-lindera-516)
- [Native Plant Network propagation protocol: Lindera benzoin, Hoss 2005](https://npn.rngr.net/renderNPNProtocolDetails?selectedProtocolIds=lauraceae-lindera-3071)

## 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)
- [Native trees and shrubs for birds: caterpillars, fruit, mast, nests and winter cover, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-birds/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)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other spicebushes (Lindera) we grow: [Bog Spicebush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bog-spicebush/index.html.md), [Pondberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pondberry/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Bottlebrush Buckeye](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bottlebrush-buckeye/index.html.md), [Virginia Sweetspire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/virginia-sweetspire/index.html.md), [Florida Anise](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-anise/index.html.md) and [Needle Palm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/needle-palm/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Florida Maple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-maple/index.html.md), [Slippery Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/slippery-elm/index.html.md) and [Sugarberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sugarberry/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Pondberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pondberry/index.html.md), [Bog Spicebush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bog-spicebush/index.html.md), [Schwerin's Indigobush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/schwerin-indigobush/index.html.md) and [Mountain Doghobble](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mountain-doghobble/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Spicebush, add ?species=spicebush with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=spicebush&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Spicebush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=spicebush): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Spicebush as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=spicebush (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Spicebush is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=spicebush (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Spicebush needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 3 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=spicebush:3
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Spicebush where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=spicebush&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Spicebush goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=spicebush&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Spicebush flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=spicebush