Myrica pensylvanica / Northern Bayberry
PLANT COMMUNITY: New England barrier beach
NATIVE REGION: Newfoundland to western New York, Maryland, North Carolina
MATURE SIZE: Height of 5-12′, spread 5-12′
HABITAT/GROWING CONDITIONS: Coastal regions; thrives in poor, sterile, sandy soil; extremely adaptable; fixes atmospheric nitrogen
ECO-INDICATOR: N/A
HARDINESS ZONE: 3-6
LEAF COLOR: Deep, lustrous green, leathery leaves
FLOWER COLOR: Yellowish green catkins
FRUIT COLOR: Grayish white fruit
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES: Bayberry is a natural selection for conservation plantings and for landscaping on coastal sands. Though not a legume, it does "fix" nitrogen and is an important constituent for revegetation efforts. Northern bayberry is used extensively throughout the Northeast to stabilize roadside banks and revegetate disturbed soil. It provides excellent stabilization and cover for sand dunes along the mid-Atlantic coastline. On Sable Island, Nova Scotia, northern bayberry showed tolerance to experimental natural gas contamination. On strip-mine spoil banks in southern Indiana that were amended with lime, 1- to 2-year-old transplanted northern bayberry seedlings had low survival rate at all lime levels. To raise the pH level of the acid mine spoils, lime was added at rates of 0, 12.5, 25, and 39 tonnes/ha.
SOURCES: Dirr, Manual of Woody Plant; http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/st411; http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/detail.php?pid=292; https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/myrpen/all.html; https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_mope6.pdf
