Common Name:
Allspice
Spicebush
Sweetbush
A genus of 9 species of shrubs or small trees having aromatic bark. Leaves simple, opposite, and entire. Flowers solitary, 3-7 cm wide, sepals and petals similar and numerous, white, green, or dark brown-red. Fruit is a hard capsule. Native to the eastern (C. floridus) and southwest U.S. (C. occidentalis) and eastern China.
Calycanthus: from the Greek kalyx, calyx, and anthos, flower, a reference to the similarity of sepals and petals.
Pronunciation:
kal-i-KAN-thus
Family:
Calycanthaceae