Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera)

Also known as: Southern bayberry, Myrica cerifera

Quick Facts

• Type: shrub
• Size: 10-20 ft tall
• Sun: full
• Water: low
• Soil: Adaptable; sand to clay, wet or dry
• USDA zones: 7-11

Aromatic evergreen foliage and waxy blue berries that keep birds fed through winter.

The ultimate Florida hedge – fast, evergreen, salt-tolerant, and fixes its own nitrogen.

In the Landscape

The ultimate native hedge or privacy screen, planted 5 to 8 feet apart. Also works for mass plantings, coastal landscapes, rain gardens, and even as a small multi-stemmed tree, and it tolerates salt spray a bit inland.

Care & Propagation

Plant in fall in almost any soil, wet or dry, in full sun to part shade, and water well the first year. It grows fast and suckers into colonies, so prune freely to shape it and remove suckers if you want a tidy form. Little fertilizer is needed since it makes its own nitrogen.

Grow from softwood cuttings treated with rooting hormone, which root in about four weeks under mist. From seed is trickier: the waxy coating must be washed off with warm soapy water, then the seeds need a long cool, moist chilling period before sowing.

Wildlife Value

The waxy blue berries on female plants are winter bird food, and the shrub is a larval host for banded hairstreak and redbanded hairstreak butterflies. Note you need at least one male plant nearby for the females to set berries.

🌱 Fun fact: Early settlers boiled the waxy berries to skim off the wax for bayberry candles. Even cooler, wax myrtle partners with soil bacteria that pull nitrogen from the air, which is why it thrives in poor sand where other plants starve.

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🌴 In Florida

The ultimate Florida hedge – fast, evergreen, salt-tolerant, and fixes its own nitrogen.

🌿 Keep exploring

More Florida natives worth meeting:

• Adam's Needle (Yucca filamentosa)
• Allegheny chinquapin (Castanea pumila)
• American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)