Myrica gale L.

Abstract

Deciduous, much branched shrub, 60-150 (to 250) cm in height. Main stems brown, twigs reddishbrown with scattered shiny yellowish glands, becoming dark, ascending at an angle. Young twigs downy. Roots nodulated with cluster roots; suckering habit. Buds small, ovoid, obtuse, reddish-brown, with several scales (Fl. Br. Isl.). Leaves alternate. Leaf laminae 2-6 cm long, petiole 3-5 mm long. Leaves oblanceolate or oblong-obovate in outline; subsessile. Base of blade narrowly wedge-shaped, tapering into the stalk. Margin coarsely toothed in upper third, entire below and undulate. Adaxial surface dull dark green with fine hairs. Abaxial side pale green with fine hairs on a prominent midrib. Conspicuous, scattered, shining yellowish resin glands on both surfaces. Glandular trichomes can be sessile or stalked. Stomata hypostomatous, anomocytic, venation camptodromous (leaf venation in which secondary veins bend forward and anastomose before reaching the margin of the leaf). Wood and leaves fragrant when bruised. Flowers are borne on the bare wood of the previous year's growth and appear before the leaves. Myrica gale is, for the most part, dioecious, but, within a single population, monoecious and hermaphrodite flowers may also occur (Davey & Gibson 1917), along with a skewed sex ratio of stems (Lloyd 1981). The male catkins are unbranched, usually about 10mm long with redbrown bracts, borne on leafless branches of the previous year's growth, usually in May or June. Bracteoles 0, stamens c.4, anthers red. Female catkins smaller (6-7mm), but thicker and closely set, with green bracts. The female flower is a gynoecium with 2 stigmas, 2 bracteoles, styles red and a single, basal unitegmic ovule. The ovary at pollination is superior, and very small. Following pollination, the bracts are raised up, owing to intercalary growth below the two transverse bracts, beneath the base of the gynoecium and around the locule. Thus, during fruit maturation, the ovary becomes inferior. Intercalary growth is significant in fruit wall formation. The female and male inflorescences are among the least branched of the Myricaceae, a trend that seems to correlate with an increasingly northern distribution. Fruit a nut, dry, flattened, gland-dotted, the adnate, accrescent bracteoles forming 2 wings, the exocarp secreting wax. Air-dry mass of nut (i standard error of the mean, n = 250) = 1.56 ? 0.75