Coastal Sweet Pepperbush
Scientific name: Clethra alnifolia
Coastal sweet pepperbush or summer sweet is a narrow, 6-12 foot, deciduous shrub, which often spreads into mounded clumps. The foliage and flowers of coastal sweet pepperbush make it an attractive garden shrub. It can be used in a mixed shrub hedge or border and pruned to maintain a small size. The lush green leaves turn to golden yellow in autumn. The fragrant flowers last up to 6 weeks or more during the middle of summer while other flowering shrubs are not blooming due to the heat.
Leaves
Leaves are alternate, simple, 2-3 inches long, and toothed toward their tips. They are medium to dark green, turn golden yellow in the fall and have appressed white hairs along the midvein.
Fruit
The fruiting stalk has many miniature oval 3-seeded capsules that are winter-persistent and are good identification features.
Flowers
Flowers are composed of 5 white fused petals. Seventeen to one hundred fragrant flowers form the bottlebrush-like inflorescences that are about 4 inches long and ¾ inches wide. Coastal sweet pepperbush produces leaves in late spring, flowers in July and August, and sets fruit in September and October.
Did You Know?
Coastal sweet pepperbush is sometimes used to halt succession of tall trees along pathways. It has been planted following herbicide application along electrical transmission, telephone, railroad, roadside, and pipeline right of ways. Its low stature does not interfere with the general operations around these utility areas.
Habitat
Coastal sweet pepperbush is found in wet woods, thickets, marshes, swales and bogs, along lake and stream edges, and near rocks in water. It is typically not a dominant species in plant communities. Common overstory associates include cypress, Atlantic white cedar, coastal pine species, red maple, magnolias, and beech.
Leaves
Leaves are alternate, simple, 2-3 inches long, and toothed toward their tips. They are medium to dark green, turn golden yellow in the fall and have appressed white hairs along the midvein.
Fruit
The fruiting stalk has many miniature oval 3-seeded capsules that are winter-persistent and are good identification features.
Flowers
Flowers are composed of 5 white fused petals. Seventeen to one hundred fragrant flowers form the bottlebrush-like inflorescences that are about 4 inches long and ¾ inches wide. Coastal sweet pepperbush produces leaves in late spring, flowers in July and August, and sets fruit in September and October.
Ecosystem Connections
The fragrant white flowers and nectar of coastal sweet pepperbush attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Deer eat it only when other forage vegetation is limited. Birds eat the fruit and aid in seed dispersal.
Coastal Sweet Pepperbush Seeds; Credit: Jeff McMillian
Coastal Sweet Pepperbush
Coastal Sweet Pepperbush Leaves; Credit: Carolyn Fannon
Coastal Sweet Pepperbush Flowers; Credit: Julie Makin
More on Trees and Shrubs in Lewisboro
Lewisboro was once entirely forested except for patches of open field caused by fire and wetlands and ponds which were expanded by beaver dams. Although it is hard to believe, by 1800 most of Lewisboro’s forests had been cut down and replaced by farms. In 1820 so many trees had been cleared that there was no shade anywhere along the route from Boston to New York.[1] But by the mid-1800’s farming here became uneconomical and as farms were abandoned, the forests began to re-grow. Today, 70% of New York is once again forest, what some call ‘the great environmental story of the United States’[2]. These new forests provide us with beauty and recreation, clean air and water, flood control, erosion prevention, carbon sequestration, cooler temperatures and habitat for other plants, insects, birds and other wildlife.
[1] Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. Macmillan, 1983.
[2] An Explosion of Green. B. Mckibben. Atlantic Monthly 275 (April 1995): 61-83.