Sweet Gale leaves and staminate buds

Sweet Gale (Myrica gale) is one of our earliest flowering shrubs. It blooms in April or early May in northern Michigan along with the Willows (Salix spp.) and soft maples. Its leaf buds are small on brownish-red, shiny, stems. Staminate (male)  flower buds are larger, cigar shaped, and at the branch tips. Staminate flowers form catkins 20-25mm [3/4-1 inch] long. Their triangular scales are covered with fragrant resinous dots. I think the catkins resemble small Viking horns. Pistillate (female) catkins are red to brown and their divided, threadlike, stigmas remind me of an artist’s brush. It flowers before the leaves appear. Plants are dioecious meaning pistillate and staminate flowers are on different shrubs. Wind pollinates this plant.

Sweet Gale staminate flowers

Sweet Gale pistillate flowers  – L           Upper surface of leaves showing glands – R

The leaves appear after the flowers in an alternate arrangement (one leaf at each node). They are simple, oblanceolate (wedge-shaped, broadest near the leaf tip) with a few fine teeth near the tip and very fragrant. If you brush your hand against the leaves it will pick up the fragrance. The upper and lower leaf surfaces are dotted with golden glands.

Sweet Gale leaves and seed heads

Sweet Gale is a low shrub, seldom taller than 1.5m [5 feet] growing in low areas or on banks of streams and ponds. It likes to have its roots inundated by water in the springtime. It is common in Michigan north of Saginaw. Get out and look for it while it is still blooming. Most people walk by this shrub without paying it any attention.

Copyright 2018 by Donald Drife

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