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Myrica Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607 is a genus of about 35–50 species of small and in the family Myricaceae, Taxonomic rank Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, and missing only from Antarctica and Oceania. Some botany split the genus into two genera on the basis of the catkin and fruit structure, restricting Myrica to a few species, and treating the others in Morella.Valérie Huguet, Manolo Gouy, Philippe Normand, Jeff F. Zimpfer, and Maria P. Fernandez. 2005. "Molecular phylogeny of Myricaceae: a reexamination of host-symbiont specificity". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34(3):557–568.
Common names include bayberry, bay-rum tree, candleberry, sweet gale, and wax-myrtle. The generic name was derived from the Greek language word μυρίκη ( myrike), meaning "fragrance".Μυρίκη was also the Greek name for Tamarix species.
The type species, Myrica gale, is holarctic in distribution, growing in peat throughout the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere; it is a deciduous shrub growing to 1m tall. The remaining species all have relatively small ranges, and are mostly warm-temperate.
Myrica faya ( Morella faya), native to the volcano islands of the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, has become an invasive species on the volcanoesWarren L. Wagner, Derral R. Herbst, and Sy H. Sohmer. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii, Revised Edition, 1999. Bishop Museum Press: Hololulu. where it was introduced in the 19th century; its ability to fix nitrogen makes it very well adapted to growing on low-nitrogen volcanic soils.
The wax coating on the fruit is indigestible for most , but a few species have adapted to be able to eat it, notably the yellow-rumped warbler and tree swallow in North America. As the wax is very energy-rich, this enables the yellow-rumped warbler to winter farther north in cooler climates than any other American warbler if bayberries are present. The are then dispersed in the droppings of the birds.
Myrica species are used as food plants by the of some Lepidoptera species including brown-tail, Pavonia pavonia, and winter moth as well as the Bucculatricidae leaf-miners Bucculatrix cidarella, B. myricae (feeds exclusively on M. gale) and B. paroptila and the Coleophora case-bearers C. comptoniella, C. pruniella, and C. viminetella.
The wax coating on the fruit of several species, known as bayberry wax, has been used traditionally to make . It was used for that purpose by the Robinson family in the novel The Swiss Family Robinson. The foliage of Myrica gale is a traditional insect repellent, used by camping to keep biting insects out of . Several species are also grown as ornamental plants in . The fruit of Myrica rubra is an economically important crop in China, sold fresh, dried, canned, for juice, for flavoring in snacks, and for alcoholic beverages. Myrica is used to spice beer and snaps in Denmark.
The leaves can add flavor to soups and broths. They can be dried and stored in jars to be used as a spice.
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