Summary ³

In Florida, wax myrtle is found in pinelands, swampy areas, and other moist sites, often growing behind dunes in the Everglades, where it is a pioneer plant. At lakesides and stream beds it can withstand occasional standing water. Multi-trunked shrub or small, many-branched tree with a narrow, rounded crown and slender, up-right branches. Wax myrtle size is highly variable from 3 to 40 feet, depending on genetic and growing conditions. Wax myrtle leaves are alternate, elliptic to oblanceolate, pubescent below, glandular, and narrow at the base. They are 1 to 5 inches long and about 0.5 inch wide. The margins are entire or toothed above the middle. Some leaves are twisted in the upper portion. Leaves are aromatic when crushed. Bark is dark gray or brown, and has a cracked or shaggy appearance. Most wax myrtles are dioecious, meaning they have imperfect flowers with female flowers and male flowers borne on different individual plants. Occasionally there are monoecious plants with imperfect male and female flowers on the same plant. The plants flower from February to June and are wind pollinated. Wax myrtle flowers are held together in clusters known as catkins. A catkin is an inflorescence consisting of a dense spike or raceme of unisexual flowers and lacking petals. The male plants produce yellow-green catkins that commonly grow to 0.5 inch. Male catkins are somewhat longer than female catkins. Catkins appear on young stems from the previous season’s flush with their leaves still attached. They are held at the leaf axils of these stems and often on parts of the same stem with no leaves. They are also present on older leafless wood. They do not appear on current season’s growth or on the oldest wood. The pollinated flowers grow into one-seeded, globose, bluish drupes with a gray, aromatic, waxy coating. They are approximately 0.1 inch in diameter. Ripe drupes become evident from August into the fall. One can boil the berries in water and skim off the wax to make one’s own candles. Wax myrtles contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their roots, and are said to improve the fertility of the soil in their general vicinity. In addition, wax myrtles are the larval food source of the red-banded hairstreak butterfly, and it is said that the plant repels insects, particularly fleas.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Homer Edward Price, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/28340342@N08/5598839099/
2. (c) t_kok, all rights reserved
3. (c) t_kok, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
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