Description

Box Myrtle (Scientific Name: Myrica esculenta) is a tree or large shrub native to the hills of northern India, southern Bhutan and Nepal. Its common names include, bayberry and kaphal. Its berries are edible and are consumed locally.

Characteristics:

Box Myrtle is a tree of medium height, 20-25 feet. Bark is soft and brittle. Petiole 0.3-2 cm, pubescent to tomentose; leaf blade narrowly elliptic-obovate or lanceolate-obovate to cuneate-obovate, 4-18 × 1.5-4.5 cm, leathery, abaxially pale green, dark punctate, occasionally sparsely golden glandular, adaxially dark green, rarely glandular, pubescent along midvein, base cuneate, margin entire or sometimes serrate in apical 1/2, apex obtuse to acute. Female flowers are very small, stalkless, solitary and bracteate, sepals and petals, either absent or not visible. Inflorescence is a catkin, 4.2 cm long, axillary, bearing about 25 flowers; only a thread-like style visible with the unaided eye. Each male flower has about 12 stamens, each with a very short filament; inflorescence is a compound raceme, about 3.5 cm long. Fruit is a globose, succulent drupe, with a bard endocarp; diameter 1.1 to 1.3 cm; weight, 670 mg. This species is globally distributed across Indo-Malesian region. Within India, it has been recorded in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram between an altitude range of 1000-2300 m.

Medicinal Use: