Index / Search / Morella pensylvanica
§1 Plant
Morella pensylvanica (Mirb.) Kartesz
vernacular northern bayberry — species · Myricaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Shrub, Tree
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Myricaceae Rich. ex Kunth
- Genus
- Morella
§2a
Native status, by region
- CAN Canada Native
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
- SPM St. Pierre & Miquelon Native
§2b
County-level range
· 127 counties across 14 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- Low
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- Low
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -28 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 140 min.
- Precipitation
- 32–65 in/yr
- pH range
- 5.5–7.8
- Root depth
- 20 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Colonizing
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Lifespan
- Long
- Mature height
- 12 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 9 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Dense
- Porosity (winter)
- Moderate
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Blue
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- Medium
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- Yes
- Seeds / lb
- 55,000
- Propagation
- bare root, container
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- Yes
- Browse palatability
- Low
- Graze palatability
- Low
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Low
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 127 counties across 14 states/territories.
Delaware view state ↗ 3 N ▾
District of Columbia view state ↗ 1 N ▾
Maine view state ↗ 10 N ▾
Maryland view state ↗ 1 N ▾
Massachusetts view state ↗ 12 N ▾
New Hampshire view state ↗ 5 N ▾
New Jersey view state ↗ 21 N ▾
New York view state ↗ 28 N ▾
- Bronx 36005
- Cattaraugus 36009
- Chautauqua 36013
- Columbia 36021
- Dutchess 36027
- Erie 36029
- Genesee 36037
- Greene 36039
- Kings 36047
- Livingston 36051
- Madison 36053
- Monroe 36055
- Nassau 36059
- New York 36061
- Onondaga 36067
- Ontario 36069
- Orange 36071
- Putnam 36079
- Queens 36081
- Richmond 36085
- Rockland 36087
- Seneca 36099
- Suffolk 36103
- Tioga 36107
- Tompkins 36109
- Ulster 36111
- Wayne 36117
- Westchester 36119
North Carolina view state ↗ 2 N ▾
Pennsylvania view state ↗ 24 N ▾
- Adams 42001
- Allegheny 42003
- Berks 42011
- Bucks 42017
- Carbon 42025
- Centre 42027
- Chester 42029
- Columbia 42037
- Crawford 42039
- Dauphin 42043
- Delaware 42045
- Erie 42049
- Franklin 42055
- Lancaster 42071
- Lebanon 42075
- Montgomery 42091
- Northampton 42095
- Philadelphia 42101
- Pike 42103
- Schuylkill 42107
- Snyder 42109
- Warren 42123
- Westmoreland 42129
- York 42133
Rhode Island view state ↗ 5 N ▾
Vermont view state ↗ 1 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/MOPE6 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3169001 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T08:39:52Z