When the ripe fruits are placed in a bucket of boiling water, the wax floats to the surface and can be collected for making fragrant bayberry candles and soap. White-tailed deer browse the leaves and young twigs. Bayberries are used in landscaping for their attractive, mostly evergreen foliage. Leaves are yellow-green, with black dots on the underside.
Leaves are less aromatic than other species.
In this species, flowers of both sexes occur on the same plant, and the fruit is dark purple and waxy. The leaves are dotted with small, black glands above and orange glands below. This species is tolerant of salt spray and damp soils, but defoliates at below zero temperatures. It has dark green, leathery, pubescent leaves, with resin dots on the lower surface. It has white buds on gray, pubescent twigs and bears tiny, grayish, waxy fruits in winter.