Gaultheria procumbens (eastern teaberry, checkerberry, boxberry, or American wintergreen) is a species of Gaultheria

Gaultheria

Gaultheria is a genus of about 170-180 species of shrubs in the family Ericaceae. The name memorializes Jean François Gauthier of Quebec, a mis-spelt honour bestowed by the Scandinavian Pehr Kalm in 1748. These plants are native to Asia, North and South America, and Australasia...

native to northeastern North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 from Newfoundland west to southeastern Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, and south to Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. It is a member of the Ericaceae

Ericaceae

The Ericaceae, commonly known as the heath or heather family, is a group of mostly calcifuge flowering plants. The family is large, with roughly 4000 species spread across 126 genera, making it the 14th most speciose family of flowering plants...

 (heath family).

Growth habit

It is a small low-growing shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

, typically reaching 10 – tall. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

, elliptic to ovate, 2–5 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, with a distinct oil of wintergreen

Methyl salicylate

Methyl salicylate is a natural product of many species of plants. Some of the plants which produce it are called wintergreens, hence the common name.-Botanical background:...

 scent. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are bell-shaped, 5 mm long, white, borne solitary or in short raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s. The berry

Berry

The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....

-like fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is actually a dry capsule surrounded by fleshy calyx, 6–9 mm diameter.

It grows in acid soil, in pine or hardwood forests, although it generally produces fruit only in sunnier areas. It often grows as part of the heath complex in an oak-heath forest.

G. procumbens spreads by means of long rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

s, which are within the top 20–30 mm of soil. Because of the shallow nature of the rhizomes, it does not survive most forest fires, but a brief or mild fire may leave rhizomes intact, from which the plant can regrow even if the above-ground shrub was consumed.

Edibility

The fruits are edible, with a minty flavor, and the leaves and branches make a fine herbal tea, through normal drying and infusion process. For the leaves to produce more than a whiff of the methyl salicylate

Methyl salicylate

Methyl salicylate is a natural product of many species of plants. Some of the plants which produce it are called wintergreens, hence the common name.-Botanical background:...

, they need to be fermented in warm water for several days before drinking.

Teaberry is also an ice cream flavor in regions where the plant grows. It also inspired the name of Clark's Teaberry

Clark's Teaberry

Clark's Teaberry is a brand of chewing gum. It was developed by the D. L. Clark Company and is currently a product of Clark Gum Company in Buffalo, New York and made in Mexico. The gum dates to 1900. It was featured in some of author Dean Davis' mystery novels....

 chewing gum

Chewing gum

Chewing gum is a type of gum traditionally made of chicle, a natural latex product, or synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene. For economical and quality reasons, many modern chewing gums use rubber instead of chicle...

.

Wildlife value

Wintergreen is not taken in large quantities by any species of wildlife, but the regularity of its use enhances its importance. Its fruit persist through the winter and it is one of the few sources of green leaves in winter. White-tailed deer

White-tailed Deer

The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...

 browse wintergreen throughout its range, and in some localities it is an important winter food. Other animals that eat wintergreen are wild turkey

Wild Turkey

The Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which derives from the South Mexican subspecies of wild turkey .Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green...

, sharp-tailed grouse

Sharp-tailed Grouse

The Sharp-tailed Grouse, Tympanuchus phasianellus , is a medium-sized prairie grouse. It is also known as the sharptail, and is known as "fire grouse" or "fire bird" by Native American Indians due to their reliance on brush fires to keep their habitat open.-Taxonomy:The Greater Prairie-chicken,...

, northern bobwhite, ring-necked pheasant, black bear

American black bear

The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

, white-footed mouse

White-footed mouse

White-footed Mouse is a rodent native to North America. It ranges from Ontario, Quebec, Labrador and the Maritime Provinces to the southwest USA and Mexico. It is also known as the Woodmouse, particularly in Texas.Adults are in length, not counting the tail, which can add another . A young adult...

, and red fox

Red Fox

The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...

. Wintergreen is a favorite food of the eastern chipmunk

Eastern Chipmunk

The eastern chipmunk is a small squirrel-like rodent found in eastern North America, the sole living member of the chipmunk genus and subgenus Tamias....

, and the leaves are a minor winter food of the gray squirrel

Eastern Gray Squirrel

The eastern gray squirrel is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus native to the eastern and midwestern United States, and to the southerly portions of the eastern provinces of Canada...

 in Virginia.

Common names

Other common names include: Canada tea, checkerberry, deerberry, ground berry, hillberry, mountain tea, partridge berry, spiceberry, spicy wintergreen, spring wintergreen, wax cluster, and teaberry.

While this plant is also known as partridge berry, that name more often refers to the ground cover Mitchella repens

Mitchella repens

Mitchella repens , or Partridge Berry, or Squaw Vine, is the best known plant in the genus Mitchella.It is a creeping prostrate herbaceous woody shrub, occurring in North America and Japan, and belonging to the madder family ....

.

See also

• Wintergreen
  Wintergreen
  Wintergreen is a group of plants. Wintergreen once commonly referred to plants that continue photosynthesis throughout the winter...
  
  s
  • Gaultheria humifusa
    Gaultheria humifusa
    Gaultheria humifusa is a species of shrub in the heath family which is known by the common names alpine wintergreen and alpine spicy wintergreen. It is native to western North America, from British Columbia to California to Colorado, where it grows in moist subalpine mountain forests...
    
    - alpine wintergreen
  • Gaultheria ovatifolia
    Gaultheria ovatifolia
    Gaultheria ovatifolia is a species of shrub in the heath family which is known by the common names western teaberry and Oregon spicy wintergreen. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in high mountain forests. This is a small, low shrub with stems...
    
    - western teaberry or Oregon spicy wintergreen