Myrica | |
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Female Myrica gale plant | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
(unranked): | Angiosperms |
(unranked): | Eudicots |
(unranked): | Rosids |
Order: | Fagales |
Family: | Myricaceae |
Genus: | Myrica L.[1] |
Type species | |
Myrica gale L. |
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Species | |
About 35 species, including: |
Myrica ( /mɪˈraɪkə/)[2] is a genus of about 35–50 species of small trees and shrubs in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, and missing only from Australasia. Some botanists split the genus into two genera on the basis of the catkin and fruit structure, restricting Myrica to a few species, and treating the others in Morella.[3]
Common names include Bayberry, Bay-rum tree, Candleberry, Sweet Gale, and Wax-myrtle. The generic name was derived from the Greek word μυρικη (myrike), meaning "fragrance."[4][5]
The species vary from 1 m shrubs up to 20 m trees; some are deciduous, but the majority of species are evergreen. The roots have nitrogen-fixing bacteria which enable the plants to grow on soils that are very poor in nitrogen content. The leaves are spirally arranged, simple, 2–12 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 usually on separate plants (dioecious). The fruit is a small drupe, usually with a wax coating.
The type species, Myrica gale, is holarctic in distribution, growing in acidic peat bogs throughout the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere; it is a deciduous shrub growing to 1 m tall. The remaining species all have relatively small ranges, and are mostly warm-temperate.
Myrica faya (Morella faya), native to the volcanic islands of Madeira and the Canary Islands, has become an invasive species on the Hawaiian volcanoes [6] where it was introduced in the 19th century; its ability to fix nitrogen makes it very well adapted to growing on low-nitrogen volcanic soils.
The wax coating on the fruit is indigestible for most birds, but a few species have adapted to be able to eat it, notably the Yellow-rumped Warbler in North America. As the wax is very energy-rich, this enables the Yellow-rumped Warbler to winter further north in cooler climates than any other American warbler if bayberries are present. The seeds are then dispersed in the birds' droppings. Myrica species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Brown-tail, Emperor Moth, and Winter Moth as well as the bucculatricid leaf-miners Bucculatrix cidarella, Bucculatrix myricae (feeds exclusively on Myrica gale) and Bucculatrix paroptila and the Coleophora case-bearers C. comptoniella, C. pruniella, and C. viminetella.
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The wax coating on the fruit of several species, known as Bayberry wax, has been used traditionally to make candles. It was used for that purpose by the eponymous family in the novel The Swiss Family Robinson. The foliage of Myrica gale is a traditional insect repellent, used by campers to keep biting insects out of tents. Several species are also grown as ornamental plants in gardens. The fruit of Myrica rubra is an economically important crop in China. Myrica is used to spice beer and snaps in Denmark.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Myrica |
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Wikispecies has information related to: Myrica |
Myrika or Myrica was a city in Galatia Salutaris (in Asia Minor), known for its hot springs, and which was also a bishopric.
Because of the mention of the hot springs in the signature of the bishop at the Council of Chalcedon, William Mitchell Ramsay identified this city with the town known in his time (19th century) as Saint Agapetos (in Greek Ἅγιος Ἀγαπητός). He interpreted as a change of name, not of location, the contrast between earlier sources such as this, which speak of a bishopric of Myrika (Myrica), and the references to a see of Saint Agapetos in later Notitiae Episcopatuum and in the signature of a bishop at the Quinisext Council of 692.
However, Ramsay also mentioned the existence within Galatia Salutaris of other hot springs at "the Merkez of the Haimane", and some identify with "the ancient Myrica Therma" the volcanically heated baths of Haymana, Ankara, which are reputed to have healing properties, especially for arthritis, rheumatism and gynaecological disorders.
Chorus: (2x)
Shiva god
Deepest love
Sweetest life I live
Destroy in my mind
Belive in my soul
What you will find
Will turn into gold
I want you to dance
My time won't run out
I will take a bow
I'm not gone around
Chorus (4x)
Don't bury my dream
And spell my belief
Don't waste bitter tears
Past will dsappear
I want you to dance
Make a room for the new
I will take a bow
Past will disappear
Chorus (4x)
My pain cuts so deep
Believe in my soul
What you will find
Will turn into gold