Bog-myrtle

Description

Myrica gale is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae, native to parts of Japan, North Korea, Russia, mainland Europe, the British Isles and parts of northern North America, in Canada and the United States. Common names include bog-myrtle, sweet willow, Dutch myrtle, and sweetgale. Myrica gale 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. Bog-myrtle is distributed throughout parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including: Japan, North Korea, Russia, mainland Europe, the British Isles, Canada and the US.