Myrtus communis Seeds | Common Myrtle
LATIN NAME: Myrtus communis
COMMON NAME: Common Myrtle
Plant Profile
Myrtus communis is an evergreen shrub of one to three metres, and in Sardinian scrub it occasionally reaches small-tree size. The leaves sit opposite one another in pairs, ovate to lance-shaped and leathery to the touch. Each carries schizogenous secretory cavities, internal oil chambers that open through the epidermis, which is why brushing past a warm myrtle releases the whole shrub’s sweetness at once. The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils: five white petals, a brush of fifty to eighty stamens, and an ovary sunk below the petals.
Myrtus sits in Myrteae, the fleshy-fruited tribe of the family, so its seed is wrapped in pulp rather than sealed inside a woody capsule of the kind Eucalyptus and Leptospermum produce. The berry ripens from green through red to blue-black and holds ten to thirty kidney-shaped seeds. Birds take the fruit and move the seed, which is why myrtle appears on its own along old walls and garden boundaries across the Mediterranean.
Gardeners usually meet myrtle as one of three things: the compact, narrow-leaved plant sold as Tarentina and traced to the country around Taranto, the broad and leathery Baetica form of Iberia and North Africa, and the ordinary wild species of the garrigue. All of them answer to clipping, which is why myrtle was a hedging plant long before it became a nursery shrub.
Plant it where the scent will be brushed as people pass: beside a path, against a south wall, or in a raised bed with rosemary and lavender. The berries go into marinades and into the brine for olives, and the dense wood has been used for tool handles and small carved boxes. North of the Mediterranean the plant needs a warm wall or a cool greenhouse, and the one disease to watch for is myrtle rust, whose orange pustules spread on damp foliage.
Science & Biotechnology
Gallotannins and flavonols such as myricetin and quercetin account for the drying sensation a ripe berry leaves on the tongue, and they are the reason a few berries work as a seasoning where a peppery edge is wanted without heat. The leaves carry different molecules: myrtucommulone A and related phloroglucinols, a family best known from the manuka and Leptospermum literature. Laboratory groups have also built shoot-tip culture systems for selected oil chemotypes, since the ornamental forms do not breed true.
Uses & Benefits
Myrtle belongs to that small group of plants whose ritual career outlasted its practical one. Branches were bound into the palm-and-willow bundle carried at the Feast of Tabernacles, where the myrtle is the hadass and its leaves are expected to be whole, and European bridal custom kept the same greenery in the bouquet for centuries afterwards. North of the Alps the plant survived as a conservatory specimen because it carried that weight of meaning.
Distil the leaves and the oil is built around myrtenyl acetate, an ester with a green, faintly resinous lift; the remainder is 1,8-cineole, alpha-pinene, limonene and linalool in proportions that shift with altitude and harvest date. The berries carry less oil but plenty of sugar and tannin, which is why Sardinia and Corsica split the crop between two drinks: mirto rosso, a deep purple infusion of the fruit, and mirto bianco, a paler one built from leaves.
Growing from Seed
Take the berries when they are fully black and soft, soak them until the pulp loosens, then rub the fruit against a sieve under running water until the hard pale seeds come free. Sow them on the surface of a mix of two parts loam, two parts coarse limestone grit and one part leaf mould, pressing them in so that they are only just covered, because myrtle seed wants air and light at the surface. Keep the pan in a warm shaded frame and prick the seedlings out once they carry four or five pairs of leaves.
Young plants fail from wet roots far more often than from drought, so water thoroughly, let the surface dry before repeating, and never leave a saucer holding standing water under a pot. Once the roots have reached the bottom of the container, myrtle takes a Mediterranean schedule comfortably, and a deep soak at long intervals beats a little sip every morning.
Our Take
I keep myrtle for two reasons: the foliage, which stays respectable through winter in a way most Mediterranean shrubs do not, and the berries, which are worth the wait. Give it the poorest, stoniest corner you have, take cuttings from a plant whose scent you like rather than trusting seed, and let it dry out between waterings. If you want a similar glossy, scented leaf on a smaller scale, try Rhodomyrtus tomentosa; for grey-leaved neighbours that will not outgrow it, English lavender and rosemary are the safest companions.
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