Our three species in this family are shrubs with a spicy-aromatic fragrance when bruised or crushed. The leaves and branchlets are ± pubescent in Comptonia and often so in Myrica. They also bear resinous orange dots (especially conspicuous in Myrica). Myricaceae, like Fabaceae, bear nitrogen-fixing nodules on the roots. Our species may serve as alternate hosts for the sweetfern rust fungus [Cronartium comptoniae Arthur], which is a cause of stem cankers in jack pine and red pine, especially the former.

1. Leaves pinnatifid their entire length, stipulate (the stipules eventually deciduous); staminate aments cylindrical, usually becoming somewhat lax and recurved; pistillate aments spherical, bur-like.

Comptonia

1. Leaves unlobed, entire except for a few teeth toward apex, estipulate; staminate and pistillate aments both short-cylindrical, rather cone-like, stiffly ascending.

Myrica