Sweet Gale is also known as Bayberry, Bog Myrtle, English Bog Myrtle, and Dutch Myrtle. This deciduous shrub is a member of the Myricaceae family. It is easy to distinguish from other bog shrubs by its blueish-green leaf colour. It also has unique leaf shape, which is toothed only at the end, 2-6 cm long, and tapers from the leaf base. At the end of its leaves are resinous, fragrant glands. It grows to a height of about a metre and has many branches.

Its tiny, white flowers have no sepals or petals and grow in clusters during May and June in crowded, stalkless catkins. The fruit catkins about the same size as the blossoms, but thicker, and are closely-set nutlets containing resin.

Sweet Gale prefers the moist, acidic soils found in bogs,  along edges of lakes and streams and in swampy places throughout the Algonquin Highlands area.

In England Sweet Gale is used to flavour ale, known as Gale beer.