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”)

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.