Myrica faya

Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox Myrica faya (firetree, faya or haya; syn. Morella faya (Ait.) Wilbur) is a species of Myrica, native to Macaronesia (the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands), and possibly also western coastal mainland Portugal.

Description

File:Morella faya kz06.jpg

Fruit

It is an evergreen shrub or small tree tall, rarely up to tall. The leaves are usually a dark, glossy green, long and broad, with an entire margin and a bluntly pointed apex. It easily grows in any type of soil.

It is subdioecious, with the male and female flowers produced largely on separate plants, but often with a few flowers of the other sex present (Binggeli 1997). The male flowers have four stamens and are normally produced in clumps close to the branch. The female flowers, typically occurring in similar groups grow slightly further from the branch tips. The fruit is an edible drupe diameter, it is a reddish purple ripening dark purple to black. It is used as an astringent remedy for catarrh (Pérez 1999, Rushforth 1999).

Distribution

In Macaronesian islands it occurs most abundantly at altitudes of 600–900 m. The population in Continental Portugal may be native or naturalised following early importation from Madeira or the Azores (Rushforth 1999). It is an invasive species in Hawaii (Vitousek et al. 1987), where it displaces native trees such as Metrosideros polymorpha, with profound impacts on nitrogen cycling (Vitousek & Walker 1989).

References

• Binggeli, P. (1997). Myrica faya. University of Bangor.
• Pérez, M. Á. C. (1999). Native Flora of the Canary Islands. Template:ISBN.
• Rushforth, K. D. (1999). Trees of Britain and Europe. Template:ISBN.
• Flora Europaea: Myrica faya
• University of Hawaii: Myrica faya native habitats
• University of Hawaii: Myrica faya as an invasive species in Hawaii