Quercus myrtifolia Willd.

Myrtle Oak occurs on dry, sandy uplands in pinelands, scrub, dunes near the coast, hummocks, and ridges (Lance 2004). It is usually the most abundant species in scrub oak forest of Quercus incana, Q. laevis, Q. marilandica, Q. margaretta, Q. geminata, and Q. virginiana. Its distribution is mainly in Florida and adjacent areas of Georgia and Alabama, extending just over the border to South Carolina and Mississippi. It is most abundant on islands off the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, where it often covers large areas with low nearly impenetrable thickets (Sargent 1895; Stein, Binion & Acciavatti 2001). Though categorised as Least Concern globally, it is considered threatened at a local level in South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi (NatureServe 2025).

Quercus myrtifolia is unlikely to make horticultural headlines, but according to the North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox (2025), it works well in sunny locations as an accent plant or the back of a shrub border, and its evergreen foliage provides winter interest. It tolerates drought and salt spray, and it thrives in sandy, well-drained soils (waterlogging is fatal). Though rare in nurseries, even in its native habitat, it is recommended for coastal plantings (Central Florida Lands and Timber Nursery 2025).

Grimshaw and Bayton prophesied in 2009 that it would only ever have a marginal existence in northern Europe, and indeed it remains rare in cultivation. It is not clear when it first entered cultivation. Le Hardÿ de Beaulieu & Lamant (2010) claim it was introduced when Willdenow described it in 1805, but this seems to be an error, as Willdenow wrote in the protologue that he had not yet seen flowers or acorns: “Flores et Fructus nondum vidi” (Willdenow 1805). The earliest records of plants in cultivation date from the late 20th century. In the UK, three specimens grow in the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, all likely of the same origin and introduced by Sir Harold Hillier in 1983 (HILL 1143). One has shown poor growth, reaching 1.5 m × 3 cm dbh in 2001; in 2025, it was barely taller at 2.2 m with the same diameter, although it is not clear at what height these were measured. The others, however, have done better, one already reaching 3.6 m × 9 cm by 2006. A tree has grown slowly but steadily in the sandy soil of Wynkcoombe Aboretum, West Sussex, planted in 2002 and reaching 1.6 m in 2017, with a rounded shrubby habit (Smith 2025; The Tree Register 2025; Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 2026). It is found in specialist collections in Europe, including Arboretum des Pouyouleix in France, where trees from several wild collections grow well, the largest forming a well-structured tree about 8 m tall (pers. obs. RC 2024), and in Iturraran Botanical Garden in Spain. At Grigadale Arboretum, Argentina, a plant sourced from Woodlanders Nursery, South Carolina, accessioned in 2013 and planted in 2015, had reached 2.3 m by 2022, forming a densely branched shrub (Grigadale Arboretum 2025).

Hybrids between these species and Quercus nigra, apparently a result of garden-sourced seed, are found in several gardens, including Arboretum des Pouyouleix and Silwood Park in Berkshire, UK, where it produces showy wine-red new growth in summer, attractively set off against the shiny pale-green foliage (pers. obs. RC 2024). Reports of annual fruiting in Q. myrtifolia (e.g. Sargent 1895) are thought to derive from observations of the hybrid with Q. pumila (Jensen 1997).

Though Willdenow described Quercus myrtifolia in 1805, his description was treated with circumspection by subsequent taxonomists. Chapman (1860) placed the taxon as a variety of Q. phellos (var. arenaria) and De Candolle (1864), as a variety of what is now Q. nigra (as Q. aquatica var. myrtifolia), both of them tentatively suggesting that the plant could be the same as what Willdenow called Q. myrtifolia. De Candolle went so far as to suggest that the problem could never be solved due to the lack of descriptions of flowers or fruits in Willdenow’s publication. Wenzig followed Chapman in considering the plant a variety of Q. phellos, but treated Willdenow’s name as the correct basionym. The Index Kewensis in 1895 listed it as a synonym of Q. aquatica Walt. (i.e. Q. nigra), but in the same year, Sargent treated it as a good species, and this was followed by Trelease in 1912 and later authors. The epithet means ‘myrtle-leaved’ and derives from Latin myrtus (‘common myrtle), which in turn derives from ancient Greek μύρτος (múrtos), + folium (“leaf”) (Wiktionary 2025).