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Gaultheria procumbens L.

Creeping Wintergreen

Modern name

Gaultheria procumbens L.

A low, tufted evergreen shrub growing 2 to 6 in. high, spreading by creeping stems, from which it sends up slender stems naked except at the top, where they carry a cluster of about four leaves; stems at first downy, afterwards glabrous. and glossy. Leaves dark glossy green, thick and leathery, quite glabrous, obovate or oval, 34 to 112 in. long, 12 to 78 in. wide, faintly toothed, the teeth often bristle-tipped; they have a strong aromatic odour and taste like that of birch, and turn reddish as winter approaches; stalk 16 in. long. Flowers produced in July and August, singly in the leaf-axils, and at the top of the stem. Corolla ovoid-cylindrical, 14 in. long, nodding, pinkish white; calyx-lobes broadly ovate, edged with tiny hairs; flower-stalk downy, 14 in. long, decurved. Fruits bright red, globose, 13 in. wide, with a pleasant, rather insipid taste. Bot. Mag., t. 1966.

Native of eastern N. America; introduced in 1762. It has there a variety of popular names such as ‘box-berry’, ‘creeping wintergreen’, and, because of the fondness of partridges for the berries, ‘partridge-berry’. An oil is extracted from it which possesses stimulating and tonic properties, but the main source of this is now Betula lenta. As a garden plant it is very pleasing for the cheerful dark green of its lustrous leaves, forming neat close tufts. It makes a pleasing undergrowth or furnishing beneath thin deciduous shrubs. Owing to the leaves in a great measure hiding the drooping flowers and fruit, its attractiveness is almost wholly in the habit and foliage.


Gaultheria procumbens

Gaultheria procumbens

Genus

Gaultheria

Other species in the genus