Flora of North America species comparison

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Myrica

Myrica californica

bayberry, myrique, sweet gale, wax-myrtle

California wax-myrtle, Pacific bayberry, Pacific wax myrtle, western wax myrtle
Habit Shrubs or small trees, often aromatic and resinous. Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 2-10 m.
Branches

spreading, terete, glabrous or pubescent, often gland-dotted.

Branchlets

green when young, becoming red-brown, eventually black to gray with age, densely gland-dotted, glands colorless to black, pilose to villous, ultimately glabrous.
Leaves

blade aromatic when crushed (except M. inodora), oblanceolate, elliptic, obovate, or oblong-ovate, membranous or leathery, margins entire or serrate-denticulate, especially in distal 1/2, pubescent or glabrous, usually gland-dotted.

blade fragrant when crushed, narrowly elliptic to elliptic-oblanceolate, 4-13 × 0.7-3.1 cm, sometimes membranous, more commonly leathery, base cuneate-attenuate, margins variable, from nearly entire (less common) to remotely and coarsely serrate entire length of blade, apex acute;

surfaces abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, shiny, both surfaces gland-dotted;

glands colorless to black, considerably more dense abaxially, midrib pilose to glabrate adaxially.
Inflorescences

± erect, ellipsoid to short-cylindric or ovoid, appearing before or with leaves;

bracts ovate, glabrous or variously pubescent.

staminate 0.6-1.7(-2.5) cm;

bisexual 0.6-1.9(-3) cm;

flowers bisexual, staminate, or pistillate within any 1 spike.
Flowers

unisexual, rarely bisexual, staminate and pistillate flowers usually on different plants, infrequently on same plants.

Staminate flowers

stamens (2-)3-12(-22), shorter or longer than subtending bract;

filaments mostly distinct, often connate into branching staminal column, each branch terminated by anther;

rudimentary ovary occasionally present.

bract of flower shorter than staminal column, margins opaque and densely ciliate;

stamens (2-)6-12(-22).
Pistillate flowers

ovary subtended by 2-6 broadly ovate bracteoles, these sometimes persistent and accrescent, always shorter than fruit, sometimes completely absent;

styles short.

Fruits

globose or ovoid to lenticular, smooth or more commonly with warty protuberances, usually covered with waxy coating that dries white.

globose-ellipsoid, 4-6.5 mm;

fruit wall glabrate to sparsely villous, obscured by enlarged, glabrous protuberances, with or without light to very heavy coat of white wax.
Pistillate

and bisexual flowers: bracteoles usually persistent in fruit, 4-6, not accrescent or adnate to fruit wall, margins ciliate;

stamens 1-5, in bisexual flowers hypogynous, free or often adnate to ovary, especially near styles;

ovary ± villous, especially at apex.
x

= 8.

Myrica

Myrica californica
Phenology Flowering spring–early summer, fruiting summer–early fall.
Habitat Coastal conifer forests, bogs, sand dunes, stream banks, wet meadows, marshes, low, moist hillsides
Elevation 0-1000 m [0-3300 ft]
Distribution
map from USDA
Nearly worldwide
[BONAP county map]
map from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

Species ca. 50 (7 in the flora).

Myrica is often cultivated. Myrica species were used by various tribes of Native Americans for medicinal purposes. Leaves were used for a gynecological aid and an emetic; the bark, as a blood purifier and a kidney aid (D. E. Moerman 1986). Bayberry candles were used by early settlers, and they remain popular household items, both decorative and functional.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

On any one branchlet, staminate inflorescences are borne proximal to bisexual inflorescences; the most distal inflorescences may be completely pistillate.

It is quite common for two or three pistillate or bisexual flowers to occur per bract and for the ovaries to fuse to form a syncarp. In the fruiting condition this can usually be detected by counting the number of style branches (two per ovary, therefore four for a syncarp derived from two fused ovaries). Many specimens apparently do not produce any wax, in which case the fruits appear purple-black rather than white.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Parent taxa Myricaceae Myricaceae > Myrica
Sibling taxa
M. cerifera, M. gale, M. hartwegii, M. heterophylla, M. inodora, M. pensylvanica
Subordinate taxa
M. californica, M. cerifera, M. gale, M. hartwegii, M. heterophylla, M. inodora, M. pensylvanica
Key
1. Bracts of staminate flowers longer than stamens; bracteoles of pistillate flowers 2, accrescent and adnate to fruit; fruits smooth (without protuberances), lacking waxy deposit (subg. Myrica).
→ 2
1. Bracts of staminate flowers shorter than stamens; bracteoles of pistillate flowers 4–6, not accrescent or adnate to fruit; fruits with numerous protuberances, usually covered with waxy coating that dries white or blue-white to gray (subg. Morella Loureiro).
→ 3
2. Bracteoles of pistillate flowers glabrous; leaf margins serrate, usually minutely so, with 1–4 pairs of teeth restricted to distal 1/3 of blade; not extending s of Oregon in w part of range.
M. gale
2. Bracteoles of pistillate flowers densely pilose, especially at apex; leaf margins serrate, often coarsely so, with 4–12 pairs of teeth ± in distal 1/2 of blade; California only.
M. hartwegii
3. Staminate flowers with 6 or more stamens, rarely 2–3, especially in distal flowers; fruit wall, but not warty protuberances, pubescent.
→ 4
3. Staminate flowers with 3–5(–7) stamens; fruit wall usually glabrous, if pubescent, warty protuberances also pubescent.
→ 5
4. Margins of leaf blade entire, rarely serrate at apex; blade not aromatic when crushed; flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate on different plants; restricted to Gulf Coast region.
M. inodora
4. Margins of leaf blade conspicuously serrate almost their entire length; blade fragrant when crushed; flowers bisexual, staminate, and pistillate, all on same plant; Pacific Coast region.
M. californica
5. Leaf blade densely glandular on both surfaces.
M. cerifera
5. Leaf blade densely glandular only abaxially.
→ 6
6. Fruit wall and warty protuberances densely hirsute when young; branches whitish gray in age; leaves deciduous, membranous; fruits 3.5–5.5 mm.
M. pensylvanica
6. Fruit wall glabrous or sparsely glandular, warty protuberances ± glandular; branches black; leaves persistent or tardily deciduous, leathery; fruits 3–4.5 mm.
M. heterophylla
Synonyms Cerothamnus, Gale, Morella Gale californica
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1024. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 449. (1754) Chamisso: Linnaea 6: 535. (1831)
Source FNA vol. 3. Treatment author: Allan J. Bornstein. FNA vol. 3. Treatment author: Allan J. Bornstein.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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