Habitat

• native to eastern United States and Canada
• zone 2
• primarily in coastal regions

Habit and Form

• a semievergreen to deciduous shrub
• typically 5' to 6'; can reach 10'
• upright, spreading branching habit
• shape is irregular to mounded
• multi-stemmed, suckering and colony-forming
• coastal plants are low-growing, often only 1' to 2' tall

Summer Foliage

• leaves are semievergreen to deciduous
• alternate leaf arrangement
• leaves are simple, obovate or oblong
• 1.5" to 4" long leaves
• 0.5" to 1.5" wide leaves
• shallow teeth at the leaf apex
• leaves are dark green and leathery
• underside of leaves pubescent
• leaves are leathery and aromatic when crushed

Autumn Foliage

• semievergreen with no real fall color
• leaves slowly turn bronze or tan and fall through the autumn and winter

Flowers

• dioecious with male and female plants; sometimes monoecious
• male flowers are yellow green catkins
• female flowers are single with no sepals or petals
• blooms in early spring
• not ornamentally important

Fruit

• female plants produce small, BB-sized waxy fruits
• color is chalky, gray-green
• wax from the fruit is used to make bayberry candles

Bark

• stems are slender
• bark is not important

Culture

• full sun to partial shade, but fall sun is best
• does well on dry, sandy, infertile soils
• prefers acidic soils; avoid high pH soils
• tolerant of salt spray

Landscape Use

• shrub border
• as a foundation plant
• difficult growing sites
• seashore landscapes
• along roadsides
• mass plantings
• combines well with evergreens
• soil stabilization due to colonizing nature

Liabilities

• chlorosis on high pH soils
• not always easy to find in commerce
• about 20% of plants should be male to achieve good fruit set on female plants
• suckering

ID Features

• aromatic foliage and stems
• colonizing habit
• semievergreen, leathery leaves
• female plants with waxy gray-green fruits

Propagation

• by seed
• vegetative propagation by cuttings or division of suckering plants

Cultivars/Varieties

Very few selections of this wonderful native plant have been made, but sexed selections are sometimes offered by specialty nurseries. 'Myda', for example, is a fruiting female clone, while 'Myriman' is a male pollinator. In most cases, a mass of plants are installed to ensure pollination and fruiting.

'Morton' (Silver Sprite™) - A new selection out of Illinois, this female fruiting clone forms a dense, broad-oval mound with gray-green leaves. It grows to 5' tall and wider.