# Sweet Gale (Myrica gale)

> A fragrant shrub of northern bogs and lake shores, with resin-dotted leaves that smell sweet when crushed and roots that fix their own nitrogen.

Also called bog myrtle, meadow fern, sweetgale, sweet bayberry. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sweet-gale/

![Sweet gale (Myrica gale) narrow leaves and clusters of yellow-green fruit catkins on a female plant](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/sweet-gale-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Hajotthu, CC BY 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGagelstrauch%28Myrica_gale%29female.JPG)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 2 to 6 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 6
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: [Alaska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AK) and 16 other states, north to [Washington](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WA), south to [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC) and west to [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR) ([Alaska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AK), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [Washington](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WA) and [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI))
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Wet, Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: March to May
- Fruit: Nutlets, October
- First crop: 3 to 4 years
- Mature spread: 5 ft
- Traits: Tolerates wet soil, Nitrogen fixing, Wildlife value
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Sweet gale is a low, bushy shrub of bogs, fens and the shores of northern lakes and streams. Its leaves are dotted with yellow resin glands and smell sweet when crushed, and in Europe its branches once flavored beer. Like our northern bayberry, it fixes nitrogen with bacteria in its roots, so it thrives on poor, wet ground. North Carolina lists it as endangered, and Pennsylvania lists it as threatened. Mass it along a pond or stream edge, or in a wet corner of the garden.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Sweet gale grows at a medium pace, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes a bushy shrub 2 to 6 feet tall with upright branches. It spreads by root suckers and by branches that root where they touch the ground, into thickets that lean out over the water.

The catkins open from March to May, before the leaves. On female plants, the small resin-dotted nutlets ripen in October in brown, cone-like clusters. Two spongy wings float each nutlet away on the water, and the fruits attract birds.

It grows wild around the northern world. In North America it ranges from Alaska and Labrador south to Oregon, the Great Lakes, New England and New Jersey. It grows rarely as far south as Virginia and the mountains of North Carolina.

## How to grow Sweet Gale

Sweet gale grows in full sun or part shade, in soil that stays wet or moist. It thrives in acid, peaty soil, though it also grows in limy fens. Set plants 3 feet apart and keep them 3 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Set each one in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper, put the native soil back in, and water it in well. The seed needs light to sprout. Keep it damp in the refrigerator for six weeks, then sow it in spring on the surface of moist mix, uncovered. Unchilled seed also sprouts, though fewer seedlings come up.

Water it weekly through the first summer unless it grows at the water's edge, and do not let the soil dry out. It needs no fertilizer, since bacteria in its roots fix nitrogen for it.

Plants are mostly male or female, and only females bear the nutlets, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. A plant can even switch from one to the other from year to year.

## Sources

- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Myrica gale](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=220008911)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Myrica and Morella chapter, Griffin and Blazich](https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/32626.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Myrica gale](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MYGA)
- [Minnesota Wildflowers: Myrica gale, sweet-gale](https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/sweet-gale)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Myrica gale](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/myrica/gale/)
- [Oregon State University, Landscape Plants: Myrica gale](https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/myrica-gale)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Myrica gale](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/myrica/myrica-gale/)
- [Biological Flora of the British Isles: Myrica gale, Skene, Sprent, Raven and Herdman, Journal of Ecology 88 (2000) 1079-1094](https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2745.2000.00522.x)
- [Michigan Flora: Myrica gale](https://michiganflora.net/species.aspx?id=1705)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Myrica gale](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.136136/Myrica_gale)
- [State lists: North Carolina 2024](https://www.ncnhp.org/media/833/open)
- [Native Plant Trust, Garden Plant Finder: Myrica gale](https://plantfinder.nativeplanttrust.org/plant/Myrica-gale)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- Trees to plant it under: [Northern White Cedar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/northern-white-cedar/index.html.md), [American Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-elm/index.html.md) and [Peachleaf Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/peachleaf-willow/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Sweet Gale, add ?species=sweet-gale with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 2, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=sweet-gale&zone=2&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Sweet Gale](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=sweet-gale): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Sweet Gale as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=sweet-gale (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Sweet Gale is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=sweet-gale (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Sweet Gale needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 3 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=sweet-gale:3
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Sweet Gale where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=sweet-gale&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Sweet Gale goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=sweet-gale&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Sweet Gale flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=sweet-gale