Wintergreen - Gaultheria procumbens

Other Names:
	Gaultheria humilis Salisbury, Gaultheria repens Rafinesque.
	Aromatic wintergreen, Boxberry, Canada tea, Canadian tea, Checkerberry, Chickenberry, Chink, Creeping wintergreen, Deerberry, Drunkards red pollom, Eastern teaberry, Groundberry, Ground Holly, Grouse berry, Hillberry, Ivory plum, Ivyberry, Mountain tea, Partridge berry, Rapper dandies, Red pollom, Redberry tea, Spiceberry, Spicy wintergreen, Spring wintergreen, Teaberry, Wax cluster., Winterberry, Wintergreen
	Gaulthérie couchée, Thé des bois, Thée rouge, Gaulthérie rampante, Thé de Jersy,  Thé de montagne, Thé de Terre Neuve.
	Winisibugons (Ojibwe, "dirty leaf")
	Bjergte,  Nordamerikansk vintergrøn
	Amerikanisches Wintergrün, Gaultherie, Gestreckte Gautiere, Kanadischer thee, Labradorthee, Niederliegende Gautiere
	Bergthee, Wintergroen.
	lamosalali
	Krypberglyng
	Gaulteria rozeslana
Note	Pyrolaceae Pyrola rotundifoliaL is also referred to as wintergreen (Chinese name is Lu-ti-ts'ao) Partridgeberry and Checkerberry are common misnomers.  Wintergreen is also used to refer to the related shrub Gaultheria mucronata

Botany:

Taxonomy: Member of Ericaceae - the Heath family
Habit: A native evergreen sub-shrub perennial. 2 - 6 inches high. Flowers May - Sept. Often provides dense groundcover. Edible fruit often stays on over winter. Leaves simple, crowded at branch tips, elliptic to elliptic-obovate, 2-5 cm by 1-2 cm, dark green, glossy above. Flowers urn-shaped, 7 mm, white or pinkish, single or rarely in small racemes. Fruits globose, 8-15 mm, red, very aromatic when rubbed.
Distribution: Native. Grows in woods and clearings, in sandy acid soils,  from the Atlantic West to Manitoba and South to Georgia. 

Associated Plants: huckleberries (Gaylussacia spp.), blueberries (Vaccinium spp.), raspberries (Rubus spp.), grapes (Vitis spp.), mountain-laurel (Kalmia latifolia), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana), bog Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), and lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum canadense)
Composition: Glycoside, gaultherin (which is comprised of about 99% methyl salicylate) an enzyme gaultherase, aldehyde 1 alcohol, 1 ester, tannin, wax and mucilage.
Propagation: 

Wintergreen is a food-source for white-tailed deer, particularly in winter.  Eastern chipmunks are particularly fond of it. Other animals that eat wintergreen include wild turkey, grouse, northern bobwhite, ring-necked pheasant, black bear, white-footed mouse, and fox.

Harvesting:

Uses:

Culinary: 

Tea from fruits & leaves -1 tsp chopped fresh leaves per cup according to one source, but < http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/wintergr.html> states "fresh leaves should be fermented in water to develop the wintergreen in them. Pack a jar loosely with fresh leaves (if mostly red are used, tea will be bright pink) and cover it, set it in a warm place for several days until the water is bubbly. Warm the tea by setting it in a pan of hot water. This will be a strong, good-tasting minty tea. The leaves can be strained out and dried slowly in shade, for a second, boiling water-infusion tea that won't be so strong."  Leaves may be chewed for freshness of breath & thirst relief, but no more than a minute - prolonged chewing releases bitterness. Used as tea substitute during American Revolution. 
(American Aboriginal traditions): Abnaki, Algonquin, Cherokee, Mohawk, and Ojibwe used leaves  to make a tea. Algonquin, Iroquois, Ojibwe and Cherokee used fruit either dried or fresh.

Spiritual

• (European traditions):none noted
• Properties: Correspondences:
• (American Aboriginal traditions)

Cosmetic/Aromatic:

Leaves are used used for potpourri.  Useful as incense. The leaves of wintergreen are used commercially to make oil of wintergreen

Medicinal

• (European traditions): Stimulant (Ordbog 1961). Methyl salicylate content indicates this is a usful herb for use in the bath or skin lotions.
• (American Aboriginal traditions): .
• Used as analgesic and cold remedy by: Algonquin, Cherokee, Chippewa, Iroquois, and Potawatomi - primarily as infusion.
• Used as Antirheumatic infusion by  Iroquois, Menominee, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi.  Delaware used a complex compound containing entire plant.
• Algonquin and Cherokee used infusion as Gastrointestinal Aid
• Kidney Aid - Infusion used by Delaware, Mohegan, and Shinnecock. Iroquois - used a compound decoction of plants
• Delaware and Ojibwe used complex compounds as Tonic (Delaware compound contained wintergreen, poke root, mullein leaves, wild cherry and black cohosh barks)

Other: 

Cherokee used dried leaves used as a substitute for chewing tobacco.

Last edited 8 February 2002