Callicarpa Americana Specimen

If most people are inured to the distinct beauty of different tree species and brightly colored flowers, herbarium specimens looking more like brown, flat, plant “mummies,” are definitely not going to catch their eye.   However, herbarium specimens and scientific vouchers continue to serve core roles in taxonomy, floristics, and species identification. Emory Herbarium (GEO) contains more than 24,000 specimens of non-vascular and vascular plants providing a basis for teaching and research. 

The voucher specimen on display is of Beautyberry, a native deciduous shrub that is often grown as an ornamental plant due to its eye-catching purple colored, juicy, sweet, fleshy, and slightly aromatic fruits. The leaves of this plant are well known for their insect-repellent effects. Also, Beautyberry has a long history of use in Native American medicine for its antidiarrheal, antirheumatic and dermatological properties.  Exciting new research found that Beautyberry produces compounds that restore the activity of certain antibiotics to methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Rapid emergence of resistant bacteria is occurring worldwide, endangering the efficacy of antibiotics. Therefore, this finding offers new hope in the search for plant derived compounds to combat antibiotic resistance.