Common Name:
Wax Myrtle
About 35 species of evergreen or deciduous shrubs or small trees, often aromatic. Leaves simple, alternate, short petioled, usually oblanceolate. Flowers unisexual, inconspicuous, without sepals or petals, in dense catkins. Fruit is an ovoid or spherical drupe, gray-green to purple, sometimes covered with resinous or waxy bloom.
Most of the Myrica have been placed in the genus, Morella [Wilbur, R.l. SIDA 16(1): 93-107(1994)].
Myrica: Greek name for Tamarix.
Pronunciation:
mi-RI-ka
Family:
Myricaceae