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By Kymberly Taylor
There is always something invisible and wonderful happening right before our eyes when it comes to plants. This is especially true of Morella pensylvanica, a semi-evergreen called the northern bayberry. Native to Maryland, this shrub grows up to 15 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Loved by the yellow-rumped warbler and other birds, it has a delightful fragrance, glossy, edible leaves, and berries that produce candle-making wax. Able to withstand wind, salt, and sea spray, it is a superb addition to the Maryland waterfront landscape, notes Grace Schneider, landscape designer at McHale Landscape Design. “It is able to survive ‘wet feet,’ which is the seasonal inundation of water, as well as dry conditions… it is a pretty resilient plant,” she explains. “Because it grows large very fast, it makes an excellent privacy screen along a property line or backdrop in a perennial garden, though it will get big. It can also help stabilize the shoreline.”
When planting your own bayberry, keep in mind that it prefers sun or partial shade and is dioecious, which means there are male and female plants. Both are needed to produce berries. Pollinated by the wind, the female produces small waxy gray drupes in the summer.
There is something extra special about the bayberry. Many gardeners purchase nitrogen to fertilize their plants and boost their growth. However, bayberry has the unique ability to manufacture nitrogen on its own. This is because bacteria called Frankia live in nodules on their roots. They convert nitrogen gas in our air into a compound the plant can use and release into the soil. Plants need nitrogen, a macronutrient, to produce chlorophyll, crucial for photosynthesis. However, only when nitrogen is converted from gas into ammonia (NH3), with the help of bacteria like Frankia and archaea—powerful microbes fundamental to life—does it become available to plants, according to a study by biologist Anne Bernhard, a professor at Connecticut College.
Because of this remarkable process, bayberry, nicknamed “miracle bush,” is sometimes interplanted in orchards to improve growing conditions for nearby fruit trees. A “nitrogen fixer,” bayberry thrives in nutrient-poor sandy soils, particularly in areas like the lower Eastern Shore’s coastal sand dunes where nitrogen is scarce, notes Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources Nursery.
Bayberry is also a historical plant. Early American settlers discovered the aromatic shrubs growing profusely along Cape Cod Bay and called them “bayberry.” They used its leaves to season meats and soups and made an extraordinary discovery: its waxy green berries, when boiled, produced a clear greenish tallow that could be skimmed from the water’s surface, melted down, and shaped into candles. The remaining blue-green water was used to dye homespun cloth. Making candles in the 17th century, however, was labor intensive. Five pounds of berries yield just one pound of wax. The time spent was well worth it—the fragrant green candles did not smoke, sputter, or smell, as did those made of tallow rendered from animal fat.
It could take days to make your own bayberry candles. However, harvesting bayberry for cooking is easy. Just walk over to your bush and snip! Crush fresh leaves to make a rub for ribs, or dry the leaves and crumble them into food. Brew a fragrant cup of tea from fresh or dried leaves. However, do not eat the berries; they are toxic.
As this fascinating shrub matures, take a moment to appreciate its visible and invisible qualities. Quietly magical, it is able to feed and shelter wildlife, light up the world, and create fertile soil out of thin air.
RESOURCES:
McHale Landscape Design, mchalelandscapedesign.com | How to make handmade bayberry candles: Fare Isle, fareisle.com
© Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 16, No. 1 2025