American wintergreen
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. Updated February 2018.
Scientific name: Gaultheria procumbens L.
Common name(s): American wintergreen, wintergreen, eastern teaberry, checkerberry, boxberry, eastern spicy-wintergreen
Links: USDA PLANTS Profile, NPIN Profile, Go Botany
Images: (to see enlargements [PC]: click on image, then right click and choose “view image”)
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- low growing woody plant, smells of wintergreen when crushed
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- leathery leaves
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- leaves may be rounded or pointed
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- leaves may turn reddish in full sun or later in the year
Description:
-Ericaceae family
-evergreen leaves are
- simple
- alternate
- entire
-fleshy fruit
-height of 2-5 inches
-leaves are berries are aromatic
-white flowers
– generally flowers in late July-August in ME
Habitat:
-under story of acidic forests
-disturbed sites
-forests
-meadows
-fields
Natural History:
– berries are edible
-used as a cold remedy and analgesic among the Algonquin, Cherokee, Chippewa, and Iroquois
-can be made into a tea
Source(s):
Hansen, R.W., S.B. Hansen and E.A. Osgood. 1991. Reproductive phenologies of selected flowering plants in eastern Maine forests. ME Agric. Exp. Station Tech. Bull. 143. 17 pp.
Heinrich, B. 1976. Flowering phenologies: Bog, woodland, and disturbed habitats. Ecology. 57(5):890-899.
Go Botany. “Gaultheria Procumbens L.” Gaultheria Procumbens (Eastern Spicy-Wintergreen, Wintergreen): Go Botany, 2021, gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/gaultheria/procumbens/.
Conneticut Botanical Society. “Gaultheria Procumbens.” Conneticut Plants, Mar. 2015, www.ct-botanical-society.org/Plants/view/226.