Home / Plants / Grow / Wax myrtle
Wax myrtle
Morella cerifera
Your local evidence lens
Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge
A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.
1. Fire evidence and conditions
- Fire evidence
- Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
- Fire-performance conditions
- No test or rating condition is normalized.
- Fire ecology context
- No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
- Placement evidence
- 4 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
- Evidence regions
- Austin, Texas; Georgetown, Texas; NC; North Carolina; North Carolina / southeastern US; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US; north-central Florida
- Maintenance
- No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.
Typed publication scope: 4 scopes across 4 cited fire sources
2. Why this plant is relevant here
- State distribution
- Documented in AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, HI, LA, MD, MS, NC, NJ, OK, PR, SC, TX, VA, WV.
- Native range
- The legacy compatibility field lists NC in native range; its field-level source was not retained.
- Introduced / established
- No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
- USDA hardiness
- Documented minimum 6b; no upper limit is documented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
- Legal-list status
- Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
- Seed-list status
- Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
- Reported invasive here
- 1 ecological invasive report; set a location to distinguish exact from regional context.
- Broader regional context
- Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
- Federal context
- Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
- Form
- tree
- USDA hardiness
- Minimum 6b; upper limit not documented
- Mature height
- ~10 ft
- Water need
- high
- Legacy native field
- NC · field-level source not retained
- Grows in
- AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, HI, LA, MD +9
- Rated in
- Austin, Texas; Georgetown, Texas; NC; North Carolina +4
- Family
- Myricaceae
- Evidence
- 8 cited sources
Plant hardiness evidence
-
USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics
Minimum 6b · no upper limit documented
Where its sources say to plant it
- Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 2 — 5–10 ft from the structure; maintained lawn or fuel breaks, with easily ignited evergreens avoided
- North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: myrica-cerifera
- Firewise Landscaping: Small trees/Large Shrubs
- Firewise Plant Guide: Small Trees
The evidence
Recommends (1)
-
“low”
The table rates Wax Myrtle — Morella cerifera low for flammability hazard, defined as the ease a plant can burn at high temperatures for a prolonged time.
Avoids (5)
-
Firewise Landscaping in North Carolina (E05-44596)
“High flammability rating”
-
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300)
“H flammability”
Very tolerant of soil salts and salt spray.
-
Fire-Resistant Landscaping in North Carolina (AG-874)
“high flammability”
-
North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox — plant profiles and flammability ratings
“high flammability; extreme flammability (listed under both tags)”
NC Toolbox facet capture lists "Myrica cerifera" under the high and extreme flammability tags. Exact GBIF reconciliation: "Myrica cerifera" → "Morella cerifera", "Myrica cerifera" → "Morella cerifera".
-
Firewise Landscaping (Travis County)
“Plants to Avoid for Zone 1 (within 30′ of Structure)”
Listed as Wax Myrtle — Morella cerifera. The page says Zone 1 entries should be restricted to zones 2 or 3; all-zone entries are highly flammable due to volatile oils or growth habit.
Mid-scale / conditional (2)
-
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector
“AT RISK Firewise (3)”
Fragrant foliage, it can be found growing in swamps, and has waxy blue fruit on stems.
-
Flammability of native understory species in pine flatwood and hardwood hammock ecosystems
“Moderate measured characteristics; no high-flammability characteristic”
Aboveground plant structure, foliage, litter, stems, moisture, volatile solids, and energy were compared across the study taxa.
