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Myrica esculenta; photograph Ramwik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SARamwik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Myrica esculenta Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don

Myricaceae · China South-Central, China Southeast +14

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Myrica esculenta, photograph PJeganathan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMyrica esculenta, photograph PJeganathan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMyrica esculenta, photograph PJeganathan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMyrica esculenta, photograph Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMyrica esculenta, photograph Krish Dulal, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMyrica esculenta, photograph राम प्रसाद जोशी, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.6°C
Record low -4.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
May and Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,301mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Myrica esculenta is a tree or large shrub of the tropics. The native range of this species stretches from Northern India (Uttarakhand) to Nepal to southern China and western and central Malaysia. Its common names include box myrtle, bayberry and kaphal. Its berries are edible and are consumed locally.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Myrica esculenta", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Myrica

Myrica 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 Antarctica and Oceania. 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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Myrica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,674 mm of 2,207 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.3 °C against a yearly mean of 15.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

2,207 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,674 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 586 mm, driest month November at 18 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,628 mm to 7,084 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,301 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,207 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.6 °C, the absolute minimum -4.6 °C, 82 frost nights in 44 years, 1.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -0.5 °C to 8.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.0 °C in May and June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 73% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +957 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Myrica esculenta through the yearWarmest months May and June, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 3.0 °C; 2,207 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost32.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-4.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0500100015002000mm rainDLI 24–41RH 53–73%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 77 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C13 / 10–2115 / 12–2419 / 16–2723 / 18–2824 / 20–2824 / 21–2823 / 20–2723 / 21–2622 / 20–2620 / 18–2417 / 15–2115 / 12–20
Night °C3 / -1–94 / 1–107 / 4–1311 / 7–1714 / 11–1817 / 14–2117 / 15–2117 / 15–2116 / 13–2012 / 8–168 / 4–125 / 1–9
Rain mm34 / 18–9055 / 26–9567 / 38–19379 / 33–421173 / 73–746271 / 158–1441586 / 211–1798504 / 225–1196313 / 191–82087 / 52–34118 / 10–6820 / 15–46
DLI25 / 22–3030 / 27–3535 / 33–3941 / 32–4339 / 29–4432 / 21–3825 / 19–3125 / 20–3027 / 22–3029 / 26–3326 / 23–2924 / 21–27
RH %58 / 52–6657 / 53–6553 / 50–6553 / 45–6861 / 50–7367 / 58–7873 / 66–7973 / 67–7770 / 64–7464 / 55–6760 / 52–6559 / 50–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 77 grid cells holding the 142 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1246:5304 (27.675, 85.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 77 distinct grid cells holding 142 of the 142 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1246:5304 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.50_85.000, lapse-corrected +957 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1734 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3745012 (Morella esculenta (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) I.M.Turner, 1291 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sumatera · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker25.388, 98.651 · in the densest population, 155 records (36% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 426 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 142 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 299 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 717 km away. 21 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 284 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3745012 (Morella esculenta (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) I.M.Turner): Kew's file holds it as Morella esculenta (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) I.M.Turner (synonym under Myrica esculenta Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don); 1,291 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 426 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Myrica esculenta, photograph 1did not loadMyrica esculenta, photograph 2did not loadMyrica esculenta, photograph 3did not loadMyrica esculenta, photograph 4did not loadMyrica esculenta, photograph 5did not loadMyrica esculenta, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: PJeganathan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Krish Dulal, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; राम प्रसाद जोशी, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pseudocaryopteris bicolor Pseudocaryopteris bicolor Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoyPhalaenopsis taenialis Phalaenopsis taenialis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Anirban Datta-RoyRhamnus virgata Rhamnus virgata Rhamnaceae Photo: CC BY, Ramnarayan KHedychium ellipticum Hedychium ellipticum Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, chintan shethDavallia bullata Davallia bullata Davalliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank Vincentz Dendrobium denudans Orchidaceae

Other Myrica 14 in the reference

Myrica adenophora Myricaceae Myrica caroliniensis Myrica caroliniensis Myricaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizMyrica cerifera Myrica cerifera Wax myrtle Photo: CC BY, Lauren McLaurinMyrica cordifolia Myrica cordifolia Myricaceae Photo: CC0, Abu ShawkaMyrica faya Myrica faya Myricaceae Photo: Public domain, propiaMyrica gale Myrica gale Bog-myrtle Photo: CC BY, Matt Berger Myrica humilis Myricaceae Myrica parvifolia Myrica parvifolia Myricaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicolas Ramirez Myrica pilulifera Myricaceae Myrica pubescens Myrica pubescens Myricaceae Photo: CC BY, Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada Myrica pusilla Myricaceae Myrica quercifolia Myricaceae all 15 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Morella esculenta. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Myricaceae
Described by
Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam +13
Wild records
426 in range · 299 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Myrica esculenta Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don (plant_name_id 2500704), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1291 records of GBIF's key 3745012, Morella esculenta (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) I.M.Turner (Kew's file holds it as Morella esculenta (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) I.M.Turner (synonym under Myrica esculenta Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don)): the GBIF download; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.50_85.000, lapse-corrected +957 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 585517-1, POWO 585517-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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