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Bayberry, Myrica pensylvanica Loisel
Myricaceae

Upright, stiffly branched shrub up to 1.5 m high.

Twigs: New twigs are hairy and covered with small yellow dots. Older twigs are contorted, grayish and have scattered horizontal whitish lenticels.

Buds: Small, rounded, reddish.

Leaves: Alternate, elliptical or oval, often broadcast toward the tip and wedge-shaped at the base, 1.2-5 cm long. Tip usually has a small point. Both surfaces are shiny; uppersurface is bright green tinged with red, hairy and glandular dotted; undersurface is lighter, densely covered with glandular dots and scattered hairs. Margins are entire or slightly undulating, and often have coarse teeth towards the tip.

Flowers: Catkins borne below the expanding leaves. Sexes are on separate plants. Blooms in late June or early July.

Fruit: Clusters of long, globular nutlets, about 4 mm in diameter, borne on short stalks below the leaves. Covered with a pale gray or whitish wax. Ripen by August and may persist for 2 or 3 years.

Habitat: Edges of small ponds and on dry barrens near the coast. Rare in Newfoundland, recorded only from the southern part of the west coast and on the south coast east to the Burin Peninsula.

Source: Native Trees and Shrubs
of Newfoundland and Labrador
By A. Glen Ryan

Used with permission from
Parks and Natural Areas Division
Department of Environment and Conservation
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador 1995