Bog myrtle

Description

Myrica gale is a species of flowering plant in the genus Myrica, native to northern and western Europe and parts of northern North America. Common names include bog-myrtle and sweetgale. It is a deciduous shrub growing to 1–2 m tall. The leaves are spirally arranged, simple, 2–5 cm long, oblanceolate with a tapered base and broader tip, and a crinkled or finely toothed margin. The flowers are catkins, with male and female catkins on separate plants dioecious. The fruit is a small drupe. It typically grows in acidic peat bogs, and to cope with these difficult nitrogen-poor growing conditions, the roots have nitrogen-fixing actinobacteria which enable the plants to grow.