Myrica pensylvanica

Myrica pensylvanica
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Fagales
Family:	Myricaceae
Genus:	Myrica
Species:	M. pensylvanica
Binomial name
Myrica pensylvanica Mirbel

Myrica pensylvanica, the Northern Bayberry, is a species of Myrica native to eastern North America, from Newfoundland west to Ontario and Ohio, and south to North Carolina.

Myrica pensylvanica is a deciduous shrub growing to 4.5 m tall. The leaves are 2.5-7 cm long and 1.5-2.7 cm broad, broadest near the leaf apex, serrate, and sticky with a spicy scent when crushed. The flowers are borne in catkins 3-18 mm long, in range of colors from green to red. The fruit is a wrinkled berry 3-5.5 mm diameter, with a pale blue-purple waxy coating; they are an important food for Yellow-rumped Warblers.

This species has root nodules containing nitrogen-fixing microorganisms, allowing it to grow in relatively poor soils.

Uses

The berries can be used to make bayberry wax candles. American colonists boiled the berries to extract the sweet-smelling wax, which they used to make clean-burning candles.

Bayberry essential oil, extracted from the aromatic leaves, is used to scent many products. Bayberry essential oil is moderately toxic due to a high eugenol content.

References

• Flora of North America: Myrica pensylvanica RangeMap:

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