Description:

This beautiful native tree grows in abundance at my place in Florida's panhandle. It is semi-evergreen where the winters are frosty but here it is evergreen. This popular plant has an attractive rounded form and is commonly used in landscaping as both a small tree or kept pruned as shrubs. Wax myrtle is uncommonly beautiful and has so many desirable attributes that it is my third most favorite native tree [after the southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) and live oak (Quercus virginiana)].

The simple narrow leaves of the wax myrtle range from 1-5 in (2.5-13 cm) in length and about 0.5 in ( 1.3 cm) wide. They are gray-green to yellow-green and aromatic when crushed. If you look at the leaf surface under magnification you'll see that it is covered with tiny yellow glands. Wax myrtle sends up multiple trunks that can grow to as high as 25 ft (7.6 m) and will eventually form a colony if suckers are not removed. The flowers appear in late winter. The males are yellow-green catkins that grow up to 1 in (2.5 cm) long while the females are small and inconspicuous little bumps that grow into small blue berries, 1/8 in (0.3 cm) in diameter, that are held closely to the stem.