Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Yes, beautyberry is rated fire resistant.
Two independent regional authorities support that conclusion. The Texas A&M Forest Service includes beautyberry among acceptable fire-resistant plants, specifically in its placement band for 30 feet and beyond. The University of Florida IFAS Extension and Florida Division of Forestry list beautyberry among less-flammable plants for defensible-space landscaping. One source uses a fire-resistant label and the other uses a less-flammable label, but both place the shrub on the favorable side of their guidance.
The wording and placement still matter. Texas does not present beautyberry as an example for the first 30 feet around a home; its endorsement is limited to the band beginning at 30 feet. Florida’s label describes relative flammability, not an inability to burn. These are expert-curated landscape recommendations from Texas and Florida, rather than a measured ignition test or a universal promise for every growing condition.
Beautyberry is a shrub in the Lamiaceae family. For a homeowner choosing plants, the practical conclusion is reassuring but specific: beautyberry is supported as a fire-resistant or less-flammable landscape choice, with the clearest placement guidance calling for it to be at least 30 feet from the house.
Form
shrub
Rated in
Florida; Texas
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Texas A&M Forest Service says the guide's landscape elements apply across Texas and at all scales. FireApproved publishes ten exact genus owners from its placement-band examples and holds Primrose and Bluebells rather than guessing taxa. The examples are not a complete Texas plant palette.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in TX.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Conditions in the fire evidence
These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Firewise Landscaping in Texas: The Right Plant for the Ri…: 30 feet and beyond [tamfs-defensible-space] (with its recommendation)
Landscaping in Florida with Fire in Mind: inside defensible space [ufifas-for71-defensible-space] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.