Ardisia crenata Sims

Hen's Eyes; Coral Ardisia; Coralberry

Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

Coralberry is an introduced evergreen shrub in the Primrose family (Primulaceae). It is native to China, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In Alabama it is sometimes cultivated and has escaped in the southern third of the state. Coralberry occurs in urban woodlands, hardwood hummocks, and streamside forests. It is an evergreen shrub growing from 3-6 feet in height. Young stems are green in color, older stems have smooth tan bark. The branches are minutely reddish glandular papillate. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, elliptic to lanceolate in outline, with crenate, undulate, or sub-revolute margins, and with 10-35 large thickened vascular nodules along the margins. The leaf surfaces are minutely reddish glandular papillate. Flowers are produced in terminal umbels or cymes on specialized 2-3 leaved lateral branches. Individual flowers have 4-6 glabrous sepals and 3-6 pink or white petals. The fruit is a red globose drupe. The leaf nodules of Coralberry house colonies of obligate endosymbiotic bacterial in the genus Burkholderia. In a complex relationship the bacteria are permanently maintained in the shoot apex and infect developing leaves and flowers. The bacteria are transferred through the seeds. Loss of the endosymbionts is reported to eventually result in death of the plant. Coralberry is sometimes planted as an ornamental. It is listed as an invasive species in Florida, Texas, and Hawaii. In Alabama it is listed as a Category 2 invasive species by the Alabama Invasive Plant Council. Coralberry is toxic to livestock.—A. Diamond.

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Not Native

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