Myrica

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Myrica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/myrica/). Accessed 2025-03-25.

Family

Myricaceae

Common Names

Gale
Bayberry

Species in genus

Glossary

alternate: Attached singly along the axis not in pairs or whorls.
ovary: Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.
unisexual: Having only male or female organs in a flower.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Myrica' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/myrica/). Accessed 2025-03-25.

Myrica faya, native to the Atlantic Islands and S Portugal, has gained ground in cultivation since Bean's last edition. Abbotsbury, Dorset, UK. 21 March 2011. Image John Anderson.

Deciduous and evergreen shrubs or small trees, with scented alternate leaves and unisexual flowers, the sexes sometimes on the same plant, sometimes separated. Flowers in catkins, and produced in the axils of bracts. There are neither sepals nor petals, the male flower consisting of a varying number of stamens, the female of a one-celled ovary with two stalkless stigmas.

The myricas are not much grown in gardens, but are worth a place for their sweetly scented leaves, and, in the American kinds, their white, wax-coated fruits. They thrive in any ordinary soil. Increased by seed or layering.

Myrica californica has aromatic evergreen leaves. The tiny flowers are densely packed in catkins. Those towards the base of a branchlet comprise male flowers; further up, they are made up of hermaphrodite flowers, while there are sometimes all-female inflorescences near the tips (Clatsop Co., OR; 11th June 2022). Image Julian Sutton.

Myrica cerifera in a private garden in Scotland. 2 August 2021. Image John Anderson.

Myrica gale, the male catkins shining in early spring sunshine at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK. 28 March 2012. Image John Anderson.

Myrica pensylvanica. Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK. 29 August 2008. Image John Anderson.

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