THE FOLKLORE OF PLANTS: Bayberry
Lisa Karen Miller
Best known to us as a source of fragrant Christmas candles, the bayberry, or Myrica cerifera, grows wild on every continent except Antarctica and Australia.
Legend tells us that if you light a new bayberry candle on Christmas Eve, you will be blessed with health, wealth, and prosperity in the new year, but only if you allow it to burn all the way down. As one saying goes:
“A bayberry candle burnt to the socket
Brings food to the larder and gold to the pocket.”
Candleberry was used medicinally by Native Americans and pioneers. They sniffed the powdered bark to relieve nasal congestion. The Choctaw boiled the leaves and stems in water and used this decoction to treat fevers. The root was prepared similarly to relieve sore throats.
European settlers used bayberry to treat pain and convulsions. Herbalists in the 18th and 19th centuries prescribed it for colds, flu, and fevers.
Bayberry contains the antibiotic and antioxidant compound myricetin. The root bark is an astringent and tonic.
The wax coating of the fruit has been used for centuries to make candles. This was a handy and free alternative to bee keeping, and convenient in those places that didn’t have the wildflowers to attract bees.
It was also a more pleasant alternative to tallow candles made from beef fat, which smoked, dripped excessively, and smelled rather unpleasant.
The wax was extracted by boiling the berries from female plants, then skimming it off the top. Candles were made by dipping wicks into it, or by molding. The water was preserved and used as a sore throat gargle.
Sadly, most of the bayberry candles produced today are made with synthetic substitutes. Even at that, they’re fairly pricey.
Southern bayberry is a fast-growing landscape shrub that makes an excellent evergreen hedge. It has amazing resistance to insects, diseases, and drought. Grow it in moist, rich soil in full to partial sun.
Both male and female plants are needed to produce fruit. To make your own authentic bayberry candles, harvest the berries when they ripen in early fall. You’ll need quite a few shrubs – it takes 15 pounds of bayberries to make one pound of wax.
They became associated with Christmas because the berries only became available shortly before, and the aromatic candles were reserved for winter festivities. Just as today, every good hostess wanted the house to smell nice when guests were expected.
Bayberry – the aroma of Christmas.
© Copyright 2023 Lisa Karen Miller
Folklore of Plants 
Leave a comment