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About American Licorice
American licorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota), also called wild licorice, is a native perennial wildflower in the pea family. It has upright stems, compound leaves with many small leaflets, pale yellowish-white to greenish-white flowers, and unusual prickly seed pods that cling to fur, socks, and pant legs. The plant spreads by rhizomes, so it can form patches where conditions suit it.
The flowers grow in dense spikes and have the pea-flower shape typical of legumes. After flowering, the plant produces small leathery pods covered in hooked bristles, giving the seed clusters a burr-like texture. Underground, the plant has long roots with a sweet flavor, which is where the “licorice” name comes from, though this is not the same species as the European licorice commonly used for commercial candy.
American licorice is also useful because, like many legumes, it can work with nitrogen-fixing bacteria in its roots. That means it can help enrich soils and stabilize disturbed places. In a coloring page, it offers compound leaves, pale flower spikes, burr-like pods, spreading stems, prairie soil, and lots of chances to add bees, butterflies, and seed-moving animals.
Where American Licorice Grows
American licorice is native to much of central and western North America and occurs in many prairie, meadow, riparian, and disturbed habitats. It is often found in grasslands, moist prairies, streambanks, draws, depressions, roadsides, railroad rights-of-way, fields, and sandy or loamy soils.
This plant usually prefers full sun to part shade and does well in moist to moderately dry sites. It is especially associated with prairie settings that have a little more moisture than the driest uplands. It can also tolerate some difficult soil conditions, including salinity, sodium, and short-term flooding.
In restoration and native plantings, American licorice can be useful in prairie gardens, riparian edges, wildlife plantings, erosion-control areas, and naturalized sunny borders. Because it spreads by rhizomes and produces clingy burr-like pods, it is best placed where a colony-forming plant is welcome. It pairs well with switchgrass, little bluestem, goldenrods, asters, milkweeds, Maximilian sunflower, bee balm, yarrow, and other prairie or streamside natives.
Pollinators It Supports
American licorice flowers attract pollinators, especially bees. The pea-shaped flowers are well suited to bees that can press into the flower and contact the pollen and stigma underneath their bodies. One reported pollinator example for wild licorice is the northern amber bumble bee (Bombus borealis), and other good prairie bee companions to illustrate include the Hunt bumble bee (Bombus huntii), brown-belted bumble bee (Bombus griseocollis), American bumble bee (Bombus pensylvanicus), sweat bees such as Lasioglossum species, and long-horned bees such as Melissodes species.
American licorice is also valuable as a butterfly host plant. Species listed as using it include the silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus), gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), marine blue (Leptotes marina), Reakirt’s blue (Echinargus isola), Melissa blue (Plebejus melissa), and orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme). These caterpillars connect the plant to grassland and open-habitat food webs.
The burr-like pods can hitchhike on animals, helping move seeds to new places. The plant also supports seed-feeding insects, including bruchid beetles that feed inside the seeds. For a coloring page, American licorice pairs well with a bumble bee working the pale flower spike, a silver-spotted skipper near the leaves, a gray hairstreak on the flowers, or a small seed beetle hidden among the prickly pods.
Coloring Tips
Color the leaves medium green, blue-green, or gray-green. Each leaf has many small oval leaflets, so use slightly different greens across the leaflet pairs to make the foliage look layered. Add darker green along the central leaf stalk and lighter green on the leaflet tips.
The flowers can be pale yellow, cream, greenish-white, or very light lavender-white. Since the flowers grow in dense spikes, use small pea-flower shapes or clustered dots rather than large petals. The stems can be green, reddish-green, or pale brown near the base.
The seed pods are one of the best details for this plant. Color young pods green or yellow-green, then shift mature pods to tan, brown, reddish-brown, or dark chestnut. Add little hooked bristles around each pod to show the burr texture. For the background, place American licorice in a moist prairie, streambank, meadow, roadside edge, or restoration planting. To show wildlife value, include a northern amber bumble bee, silver-spotted skipper, gray hairstreak, marine blue, or orange sulphur near the flowers or leaves.