Beach Vitex: The Kudzu of the Coast
Beach Vitex
Vitex rotundifolia
Beach vitex is a deciduous woody vine that was introduced to the Southeastern U.S. from Korea in the mid-1980s. Before its introduction to the southern Atlantic Coast of the U.S., beach vitex had no history of invasiveness. However, by the mid-1990s, dune restoration specialists with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to notice beach vitex spreading from original plantings on South Carolina beaches, crowding out native dune plants, and spreading by seeds and vegetative fragments.
Beach Vitex
Vitex rotundifolia
- Habit: Woody, deciduous shrub growing 30 to 60 cm tall, procumbent stems sprawling to 5 m or more, rooting at nodes, forming dense mats with age.
- Leaves: suborbicular, opposite, 2 to 7 cm long, blue-green above and light greenish-white below, pubescent, with spicy aroma when crushed.
- Flowers: blue-purple, to 2 cm long, in short terminal panicles to 8 cm long.
- Fruit: globose fleshy drupe. Green when fresh, bluish purple to black when ripe, becoming dark-brown when dry; glabrous, glandular all over; 4-5.5 mm long, 5-6.5 mm diameter; fruiting calyx glandular and tomentose outside, glabrous within; 5-toothed, 5-6.5 mm diameter. The seeds are difficult to remove from the fruit.
