Southern Bayberry or American myrtles or Southern Wax Myrtle

A culture experiment gone wrong?

The spherical, knobbly drupe (stoned fruit) of this 2.5 m high myrtle is covered in a white waxy layer hence it Dutch vernacular name wasgagel or ‘wax myrtle’. This plant is wind pollinated in April and May; fruit are then dispersed by birds. The leaf releases an aromatic smell when bruised and is slightly toxic and slightly hallucinogenic. The southern bayberry is a native of eastern North America and appears in England and the Netherlands as a naturalised species. Because it was already present in the Netherlands before 1900, this species is counted as being native.

Ecology and habitat

Morella caroliniensis grows in wet heathland and swamp forests. It prefers sunny to shaded sites, partly overgrown, weakly acidic to acidic, nutrient-poor, peaty, sandy or clay soils. As with other myrtle species the roots are able to bind nitrogen. Originally from North America, this species grows there in wet heathland but also in dunes, in fields, in deciduous and conifer woods, on banks, in pastures and sometimes on rocky edges.

The southern bayberry is naturalised in southern England and the Netherlands. It is highly plausible that introduction of this evergreen plant in the Netherlands is linked to in an experiment, 150 years ago, that went wrong when people tried to develop ‘waste ground’. Southern bayberry can reproduce vegetatively and spread via its numerous runners.

Threat

Morella caroliniensis is now very rare in the Netherlands. In the past southern bayberry grew near Tubbergen and Landsmeer, now it is only found near Zutphen. Its decline is most probably the result of eutrophication, land development and associated desiccation.