Alternate name: Wax-myrtle, Candleberry

Family: Myricaceae, Wax-myrtle view all from this family

Description Evergreen aromatic resinous shrub or small tree with narrow rounded crown.
Height: 30' (9 m).
Diameter: 6" (15 cm).
Leaves: 1 1/2-3 1/2" (4-9 cm) long, 1/4-3/4" (6-19 mm) wide; those toward end of twigs often smaller. Reverse lance-shaped; coarsely saw-toothed beyond middle; slightly thickened and stiff; aromatic when crushed; short-stalked. Shiny yellow-green with tiny dark brown gland-dots above, paler with tiny orange gland-dots and often hairy beneath.
Bark: light gray, smooth, thin.
Flowers: tiny; yellow-green; in narrowly cylindrical clusters 1/4-3/4" (6-19 mm) long; at base of leaf. Male and female on separate trees; in early spring.
Fruit: 1/8" (3 mm) in diameter; 1-seeded drupes; warty; light green, covered with bluish-white wax; several crowded in a cluster; maturing in autumn; remaining attached in winter.

Habitat Moist, sandy soil, in fresh or slightly brackish banks, swamps, hammocks, flatwoods, pinelands, and upland hardwood forests.

Range S. New Jersey south to S. Florida, west to S. Texas, and north to extreme SE. Oklahoma; to about 500' (152 m).

Discussion One of the very few Puerto Rican trees native also in the United States north of Florida, this popular evergreen ornamental is used for screens, hedges, landscaping, and as a source of honey. Colonists separated the fruit's waxy covering in boiling water to make fragrant-burning candles, a custom still followed in some countries.