Northern Bayberry or Bayberry

(Myricaceae - Bayberry Family or Wax Myrtle Family)

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• Form
  • medium-sized ornamental shrub
  • maturing at up to 10' tall by 10' wide, but often pruned or sheared into a smaller size
  • upright rounded growth habit, becoming upright spreading with age and often forming colonies by suckering
  • medium growth rate

• Culture
  • full sun to partial shade
  • prefers moist, well-drained soils in full sun but is extemely adaptable to heavy (clay) soils, light (sandy) soils, poor soils, dry or wet soils, soils of various pH, and Winter salt spray
  • propagated by seeds or rooted stem cuttings
  • Bayberry Family, with no serious disease or pest problems
  • commonly available in container or ball and burlap form
  • if semi-evergreen Winter foliage is desired, place in a wind-sheltered site, but if nearly deciduous foliage is desired (to enhance the showy berries on female or monoecious plants), put in a more exposed site to encourage leaf abscission
  • specimen plantings can gradually be limbed up into multitrunked tree form, if desired

• Foliage
  • medium to dark green, alternate, obovate, and sparsely serrated on the upper half of some leaves
  • semi-evergreen to deciduous in Winter, with some dead brown leaves also hanging on throughout most of the Winter

• Flowers
  • occuring in April and ornamentally insignificant
  • monoecious or dioecious; plants in the nursery industry are often selected for monoecious character (that is, separate male and female flowers occur on the same plant), so that separate male and female plants (in dioecious selections) are not required for landscape plantings

• Fruits
  • light green fruits in Summer mature to silver or white-gray small berries in Autumn and persist into the following growing season, becoming somewhat blackened with the coldest temperatures of Winter
  • berries are sessile and in tight clusters along the second-year stems of female plants or monoecious plants
  • the showy ornamental berries are best displayed on plants where the foliage completely abscises from the stems in Winter - either on plants genetically predisposed for complete foliage drop, or those plants sited in exposed, windswept areas

• Twigs
  • green, changing to tan at the end of the first growing season, and becoming light gray to silvery on the more mature branches
  • small but prominent Winter floral buds are somewhat elongated
  • branching occurs in a clustered fashion along the twigs and branches, yielding a spreading overall growth habit

• Trunk
  • light gray and multi-trunked, often becoming leggy with age, but the legginess is later hidden by basal trunk and root suckers if they are not pruned away

• Function
  • group or mass plantings, embankments, informal hedges, privacy screens, and at poor soil, sandy soil, wet soil, dry soil, or Winter salt spray sites

• Texture
  • medium texture in foliage and when bare
  • thick density in foliage and when bare

• Assets
  • showy silver berries in Winter (on female plants or monoecious plants)
  • Winter salt spray tolerant
  • very adaptable to poor, dry, compacted, or sandy soils, or to periodically wet soils
  • excellent for embankments (for erosion control) or naturalized areas (where its suckering habit is not undesirable)
  • foliage, stems, and berries are bayberry-scented when crushed, rubbed, or bruised

• Liabilities
  • often suckers from its trunk base and roots, and thereby extends its original boundaries in a slowly invasive manner (if this is desired, then it is an asset)
  • foliage, while semi-evergreen, often Winterburns and partially remains on the shrub, and thus partially hides the showy silver berries
  • legginess with maturity (unless hidden by suckers)
  • a male pollinator is needed for berry production if female plants (rather than monecious plants) are present
  • if plants are periodically sheared, less fruit production will result if the pruning is done after mid-July, by which time floral buds on the first-year wood have set for the next season

• Habitat
  • zones 3 to 7
  • native to Eastern North America, primarily in northern areas along the seashore (hence its adaptation to salt spray)

• Alternates
  • shrubs with ornamental Winter berries (Aronia arbutifolia, Ilex species, etc.) or other attractive Winter features (Cornus sericea, Corylus avellana 'Contorta', Hydrangea quercifolia, Salix discolor, etc.)
  • salt-spray tolerant shrubs (Prunus x cistena, Potentilla fruticosa, Ribes alpinum, etc.)
  • wet-site tolerant shrubs (Cornus sericea, Ilex verticillata, Salix purpurea, etc.)

• Variants
  • the straight species is the most common form available, and although some nurseries still propagate male and female forms separately (for more dense and abundant fruit production on the female plants), most nurseries propagate the monoecious form (where staminate and pistillate flowers are on the same plant, and every plant has some fruit in the Winter)

• Translation
  • Myrica is the Greek name for a different plant which is now known as Tamarix .
  • pensylanica translates as "from Pennsylvania" (while being spelled oddly).

• Purpose
  • Northern Bayberry is an urban-tolerant shrub, also adaptable to wet sites or Winter salt-spray areas, with ornamental silver berries.

• Summary
  • Myrica pensylvanica is known as an upright semi-evergreen shrub that often spreads by suckers to form colonies, and is noted for its ornamental silver berries in Winter, its Winter salt spray tolerance, and its adaptability to urban stresses or wet sites.