Author: Lee Tupper

Common Names: Southern waxmyrtle, waxberry, tallow berry, candleberry, tallow shrub, candleberry myrtle.

Introduced: First located in Williamsburg, VA 1699.

This is a photograph of a Southern waxmyrtle, Myrica cerifera, taken at the Georgia state botanical gardens. "Southern bayberry is an erect , evergreen, small tree or shrub. It is native to low-elevation tropical, subtropical, and warm-temperate regions of the Americas. It grows to a maximum height of 40 feet (12m), and a maximum d.b.h. of 12.5 inches (32 cm) at maturity." (Van Deelen). "Its flat leaves are toothed near the end and aromatic when crushed. The diminutive flowers are unisexual, dioecious, and borne on catkinlike axillary spikes. Southern bayberry fruit are small, light green, dry drupes which are colored with a conspicuous layer of pale blue wax, giving them a "warty" appearance. Each axillary spike bears 1 to 12 berries, which may persist over winter."

Site Characteristics: Southern bayberry grows on a variety of sites, but is most successful in climates with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers, and elevations below 500 feet. The bayberry grows in thick soils, either wet or dry, in open or wooded areas. "Southern bayberry's ecological amplitude is demonstrated by reported growth on fresh to slightly brackish banks and shores, flats and interdune swales, pine and palmetto flatwoods and savannas, cypress-gum ponds and swamps, wet and dry praries, pitcher-plant bogs, upland mixed woodlands, old fields, and fence and hedge rows. The Southern waxmyrtle is not bothered by deer and can tolerate either full sun or half shade. Myrica cerifera is native to the costal plain stretching from Maryland to Texas.

Geography: Myrica cerifera can be pruned and limbed up to form an attractive tree. "At Sea Island, GA, it is limbed up to expose the handsome grey and white bark. At the Georgia state botanical gardens, it is used to soften the vertical lines of the administration building, and as a specimen plant."(Dirr)