Calycanthus floridusL.

Carolina sweetshrub

WFO wfo-0000581802 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Calycanthus floridus, photographed by lejones417
fig. a lejones417, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-19 / obs. 199362745
Calycanthus floridus, photographed by Laura Gaudette
fig. b Laura Gaudette, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199147709
Calycanthus floridus, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. c Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190833501
Calycanthus floridus, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. d Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188837058
Calycanthus floridus, photographed by Leila Dasher
fig. e Leila Dasher, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191385918
Calycanthus floridus, photographed by Laura Martin
fig. f Laura Martin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187808870
Calycanthus floridus, photographed by Lindsey G.
fig. g Lindsey G., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186303231
Calycanthus floridus, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. h Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191055790

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 1,255 observations

Peak flowering in Apr, from 1,255 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 48 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Basteria calycanthus Mill.
  • Beureria ferax (Michx.) Kuntze
  • Beureria fertilis (Walter) Kuntze
  • Beureria florida (L.) Kuntze
  • Beureria laevigata (Willd.) Millsp.
  • Butneria fertilis (Walter) Kearney
  • Butneria fertilis f. nana (Loisel.) C.K.Schneid.
  • Butneria fertilis var. ferax (Michx.) C.K.Schneid.
  • Butneria fertilis var. glauca (Willd.) C.K.Schneid.
  • Butneria florida (L.) Kearney
  • Butneria mohrii Small
  • Butneria nana (Loisel.) Small
  • Calycanthus acuminatus K.Koch
  • Calycanthus aspleniifolius K.Koch
  • Calycanthus bullatus K.Koch
  • Calycanthus ferax Michx.
  • Calycanthus fertilis Walter
  • Calycanthus fertilis Andrews
  • Calycanthus fertilis var. ferax (Michx.) Rehder
  • Calycanthus fertilis var. glaucus (Willd.) Rehder
  • Calycanthus fertilis var. laevigatus (Willd.) Bean
  • Calycanthus fertilis var. oblongifolius (Nutt.) Rehder
  • Calycanthus floridus f. nanus (Loisel.) Schelle
  • Calycanthus floridus f. purpureus (Boom) Rehder

and 24 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.