Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Myrica gale

Other names

Sweet Gale, Gold Withy

Family

Myricacaea

Flowering season

April to May

English distribution

It is found in parts of the Northwest, Northeast, East

Anglia, South and Southwest and is thinly scattered

elsewhere.

The pictures shown here were taken in the nature

reserve at Studland, Dorset,

See the BSBI distribution map for Bog-myrtle

Habitat

It grows in acid bogs, moors, wet heaths and at the

edge of wet woods (carr), all of which have moving

groundwater.

Description

Bog-myrtle is a native, suckering, patch-forming,

aromatic shrub, growing up to 1.5m.

Male and female flowers are usually on separate

plants, but some plants have both male and female

flowers, and some can change sex from year to year.

On the day I took these pictures in early April, all

the plants had male catkins and I only found one

branch, on an otherwise male plant, which had

female flowers. This presumably changes, because

in the autumn there were large numbers of nuts.

Catkins are lateral on last year's shoots and appear

before the leaves.

Male catkins are yellow-orange and up to 3cm long.

Each male flower has a red-brown bract and 4 or

more cream stamens, which darken later.

Female flowers are up to 1cm and are bright red with

red bracts and styles.

The nuts are hard, and glandular.

The first leaves are green and become greyer as they age.

They are elongated ovals up to 6cm long.

Twigs are red-brown.

The leaves and stems are covered in glands which give

off a highly aromatic, balsamic-smelling resin.

They contain an essential oil, which has been used as an

insect repellant, a scent in candles and a flavouring herb

in brewing and cooking.

There are at least three places in England named after

bog myrtle or gale: Gailey, Staffordshire, “grove overgrown

with bog myrtle”; Galsworthy, Devon, “bank or slope with

bog myrtle”; and Galton, Dorset, “homestead where

bog myrtle grows”. This, and further information on

the use of Bog-myrtle in brewing, can be found by

clicking on the following link - Gale warning / Zythophile