Common Myrtle                MUR-tus kom-MU-nis

• Broadleaf evergreen shrub or small tree, to 10 ft tall and 12 ft wide (3 × 6.7 m), dense foliage.   Bark is smooth and gray-brown, becomes handsome with age, eventually developing a brown to tan pealing segments revealing a darker or lighter tan inner bark.  Leaves simple, opposite, ovate to lanceolate, 2.5-5 cm long and about 1.5 cm wide, apex pointed, margin entire, dark glossy green, paler below, covered with transparent dots, strongly scented when crushed.   Flowers white or pink-white, to 3 cm wide, many stamens, fragrant, on long stalks (to 3 cm).   Fruit subglobose, 9 mm diam., blue-black when ripe.
• Sun.   Requires well-drained soil.   Shelter from cool drying winds.  Often grown as hedge or screen.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 8      Native to Mediterranean and southwest Europe, although its native range is uncertain since the plant has been widely cultivated for centuries.
• communis: common