Northern Bayberry
Morella pensylvanica
Northern bayberry is a tough, aromatic, salt-tolerant shrub whose waxy gray berries make bayberry candles and feed myrtle warblers through winter. A nitrogen-fixing, deer-resistant pick for coastal and poor sandy soils.
- Family
- Myricaceae
- Type
- shrub
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 5–10 ft
- Spacing
- 5–10 ft apart
- Light
- sun, part shade
- Soil moisture
- dry, moist
- Soil pH
- acidic, neutral
- Bloom
- April, May
- Bloom colors
- green, yellow
- Wildlife value
- songbirds, larval host, pollinators
- Caterpillar hosts
- ~108 butterfly & moth species
- Landscape uses
- specimen, hedge or screen, erosion control
- Native states
- CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA