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24 wrz 2022 · The Southern Wax Myrtle, also known as the Bayberry, is a versatile evergreen shrub that thrives in a variety of habitats across Florida. Its adaptability allows it to flourish in coastal dunes, pine flatwoods, and wetland margins, making it a common sight in both natural and cultivated landscapes.
Sometimes called Southern bayberry, wax myrtle was used by early American colonists to make bayberry candles from the fruit's waxy, bluish coating. The foliage is also aromatic. Commonly used as a hedge or privacy screen, this fast-growing shrub can also be grown as a tree.
Wax myrtles are an excellent choice for the Florida yard, especially coastal areas. Also called Southern bayberry, its name derives from the waxy berries, which were once harvested to make bayberry candles. Today, the wax myrtle is better appreciated for its easy care and salt tolerance.
14 paź 2015 · The fruits are twice the size of the common waxmyrtle. This species, like the dwarf waxmyrtle, is stoloniferous. Swamp Bayberry or Evergreen Bayberry (Morella caroliniensis; formerly Myrica caroliniensis or Myrica heterophylla): This species is more or less evergreen, and has the largest leaves of the related species.
These days, most commercially available “bayberry” candles are made with paraffin and other artificial ingredients, but for hundreds of years, wild bayberries—the unusual fruits of the southern wax myrtle—were the only source of the distinctive wax used to manufacture them.
14 lut 2024 · People have long planted wax myrtle shrubs as natural privacy screens, or used an extract from the leaves as a mosquito repellent. The leaves are tough, similar in texture to live oaks, helping hold in water for drought tolerance and keep out salt, enabling them to thrive in coastal areas.
Wax myrtle can be found growing in a wide variety of habitats throughout Florida including coastal areas, pine savannahs, cypress swamps, wet hammocks, bogs, upland hammocks, old fields, and fence rows. Its leaves are alternate, simple, narrowly oblanceolate and toothed at the apices (tips).
