Southern Waxmrytle

Latin (group) name: Myrica

Latin (specific) name: Myrica Cerifera Linnaeus

Average max height: 40'

Average diameter:

Official state tree: none

Category: American Woods The Hardwoods - Broadleafs

Wood Research

The Tree

The Southern Waxmyrtle is usually a small tree seldom over 40 feet high, and more frequently is a large shrub forming dense thickets. It is a slender upright tree with a well rounded crown and spreading branches. It grows best in moist sandy soils. Several trunks often spring from the parent root. This characteristic is common to many of the larger shrubs. The bark is thin, smooth and a light gray color. The oblong leaves are rather thick and broad with a narrow, coarsely toothed base. The leaves are a lustrous yellowish-green to dark green on the upper surface and orange-tinted to bright green below. When crushed the leaves have a pleasant odor. A flavoring extract is made from them and used in confections. The bark is sometimes used in tanning and in dyes and medicines. The fruit appears in small clusters of pale blue color developing into a very small, bright orange-brown seed coated with a thick wax from which the tree probably derives its name in conjunction with the waxy appearance of its leaves. In early days candles were made from the wax obtained from its leaves.

Southern Waxmrytle male and female flowers.

Common Names in Use

• Southern Waxmyrtle (lit.)
• Bayberry (N.J., Del., N.C., S.C., Ala., Fla.)
• Candleberry (Fla.)
• Cirier (La.)
• Myrtle (Fla.)
• Myrtletree (Fla.)
• Puckerbush (Fla.)
• Tallow Bay-berry
• Waxberry (S.C.)
• Waxmyrtle (N.J., Del., N.C., S.C., Ala., Fla.)

Growth Range

The natural growth range of Southern Waxmyrtle extends along the Atlantic coastal plain from New Jersey to southern Florida; westward along the Gulf coast to eastern Texas; northward into Arkansas, the greater part of Mississippi and the southern half of Alabama and Georgia.

The Wood

The Waxmyrtle wood is soft, brittle, light in weight, and straight and close-grained. The heartwood is a dark chocolate-brown while the thin sapwood is a yellowish-tan color. It has a slight figure more or less striped and wavy. Quarter sawed lumber from the larger trees has a very pleasing figure, as the rays appear rather prominently on the dark brown background. The wood is easily worked or turned and takes a good finish.

Romeyn B. Hough's American Woods, Volume XI plate 268

Uses

The wood of the Southern Waxmyrtle is of very little commercial importance but should be a desirable wood for the home workshop in localities where the tree is found. It is used to some extent in commercial turnery and small woodenware products. The Pacific Waxmyrtle is much lighter in color but very similar in texture and workability to the Southern Waxmyrtle.

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