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Plant · P-167
Wintergreen
Gaultheria procumbens
Wintergreen is a low evergreen groundcover of cool, moist woodland floors that produces small scarlet berries with an intense, spicy-mint flavor that improves after a frost - the same plant that supplies natural oil of wintergreen for candy, gum and toothpaste. Its leaves make a tea and have a long history of use for pain relief, and its berries feed birds and small mammals through fall and winter. It needs strongly acidic, humus-rich soil and shaded, cool summers to survive - hot summer heat and alkaline soil are both outside what it tolerates - and the pure essential oil is toxic in large doses and unsafe for anyone allergic to aspirin or under age twelve.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–7
- Soil
- Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 4–6
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 4–8 in
- Mature spread
- 6–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 10–14 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Barren Strawberry
Waldsteinia fragarioides
Barren Strawberry is a low woodland groundcover with strawberry-like leaves and yellow spring flowers, but despite the name and the leaf…
Groundcover · USDA 4–7
Beach Strawberry
Fragaria chiloensis
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Groundcover · USDA 4–10
Bilberry
Vaccinium myrtillus
Bilberry is a low, suckering shrub of acid heaths and cool mountain woodland, spreading by rhizome into a knee-high mat. Its small dark…
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Black Medick
Medicago lupulina
Black Medick is a low, sprawling nitrogen-fixing clover relative that forms a mowable mat through fall, winter and spring before dying back…
Groundcover · USDA 3–9
Carpet Bugle
Ajuga reptans
Carpet Bugle forms a fast, dense, rooting mat that thrives in dry shade - the hardest niche on most properties to fill, since dry ground…
Groundcover · USDA 3–10
Catmint
Nepeta racemosa
Catmint blooms from spring through the end of summer if the spent flower spikes are sheared after each flush, holding nectar for pollinators…
Groundcover · USDA 5–9
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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