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Alpine spicywintergreen

Gaultheria humifusa

Also called Alpine spicy wintergreen, Matted wintergreen, Western wintergreen, Alpine wintergreen

Alpine spicywintergreen
Photo: Chloe and Trevor Van Loon https://www.inaturalist.org/people/chloe_and_trevor, CC BY 4.0
Family
Ericaceae (Heather family)
Grows as
Shrub
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
W. Canada to W. & WC. U.S.A.
Climate
temperate

About

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. It is a low, spreading shrub which may be quite small, forming flat patches on the ground or amongst rock and leaf litter. The stems are less than 20 cm (7.9 in) in length and have small oval-shaped leaves 1 to 2 cm (0.39 to 0.79 in) long. It bears solitary bell-shaped flowers with white to light pink corollas and golden anthers which, after pollination, mature into bright to dull red berrylike fruit capsules. The leaves and fruit of Gaultheria humifusa are edible.

Other Gaultheria plants

Gaultheria puradyatmikae · Wintergreen · Gaultheria adenothrix · Bush Snowberry · Wax Berry · Scarlet Snowberry · Gaultheria cuneata · Mountain Snowberry · Gaultheria floribunda · Gaultheria fragrantissima · Copperleaf Snowberry · Creeping snowberry

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gaultheria humifusa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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