Myrica pensylvanica
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{speciesbox
|image = Northern Bayberry Leaf Cluster 2420px.jpg
|genus = Myrica
|species = pensylvanica
|authority = Mirbel
|range_map = Myrica pensylvanica range map.jpg
|range_map_caption = Natural range
|synonyms = Morella pensylvanica
}}
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. It is also classified as Morella pensylvanica.
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.
Taxonomy
This plant is one of several Myrica species that are sometimes split into the genus Morella, e.g. in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Additionally southern bayberry, M. caroliniensis, and this species are sometimes lumped, disregarding the putative difference that M. caroliniensis is evergreen or tardily deciduous. M. pensylvanica is similar to wax myrtle, M. cerifera. These plants' leaves and scent distinguish them: wax myrtle leaves have scent glands on both sides and are fragrant when crushed, northern bayberry has scent glands mainly on the leaf undersides and is not markedly fragrant. Northern bayberry hybridizes with both southern bayberry and wax myrtle.{{cite web|url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500794|title=Myrica pensylvanica in Floras of North America @ efloras.org|accessdate=6 June 2014}}{{cite web|url=https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=507904|title=ITIS Standard Report Page: Morella pensylvanica|publisher=Integrated Taxonomic Information System|accessdate=6 June 2014}}
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.Mark H. Brand. [http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/m/myrpen/myrpen1.html "Myrica pensylvanica: Northern Bayberry".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100801082232/http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/m/myrpen/myrpen1.html |date=2010-08-01 }} Plant UConn Database of trees, shurbs and vines. Retrieved 2010-10-29.[http://www.candles.org/about_history.html "History of Candles."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120517112023/http://www.candles.org/about_history.html |date=2012-05-17 }} National Candle Association (2010). Retrieved 2010-10-29.
References
{{Reflist}}
- [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500794 Flora of North America: Myrica pensylvanica] [http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=6461&flora_id=1 RangeMap: ]
{{Commons category|Myrica pensylvanica}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q3331585}}
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Category:Flora of the Northeastern United States
Category:Flora of the Southeastern United States
Category:Flora of Eastern Canada
Category:Flora without expected TNC conservation status
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