WINTERGREEN
Gaultheria procumbens
COMMON NAMES: Teaberry, boxberry, checkerberry.
FEATURES: Wintergreen is a name applied to several plants of the family Ericaceae that retain their
foliage during winter. In eastern North America the aromatic little Gaultbeira procumbens is the one most
often referred to. This low-growing barley, 6 inches high, has glossy, leathery, broad leaves with creeping
stems from which arise erect reddish branches. They bear solitary white flowers, usually below the
leaves, followed by the rather generous fruit (considering the size of the plant), which encloses the seed
capsules and assumes the form of a bright scarlet, edible, mealy, and spicy berry. The whole plant is
pungent in taste the spiciness due to the volatile oil. Collection is somewhat difficult in its scattered wild
state. Cultivation requires specially constructed shade such as goldenseal and ginseng provide. Wild
plants may be used for propagation; divisions of these may be set in the autumn or spring, about 6 inches
apart each way, in permanent beds. The soil, which should be thoroughly mixed with a 4-inch depth of
leaf mold, will give a fairly good growth. Collection is usually at the end of the growth season, around
October.
MEDICINAL PART: The whole plant.
SOLVENT: Water.
BODILY INFLUENCES: Astringent, stimulant, anodyne.
USES: Distilled wintergreen oil is chiefly used for flavoring confectionery or pharmaceutical
preparations. Native Americans employed the plant for rheumatic conditions, internally and externally.
Compared to the size of willow (Salix nigra) or birch (Betula alba), wintergreen is a very small plant,
but they all have a common agent, salicylate, which is most useful in relieving pains of rheumatism and as
a stimulating nervine. May be employed in diarrhea and as an infant’s carminative. Adjust dose according
to age.
DOSE: 1 teaspoonful of the plant, cut small or granulated, to 1 cupful of boiling water; drink 1 cupful, cold
or hot, during the day, a large mouthful at a time. Of the tincture, 5–20 minims. Too large an amount can
cause vomiting.
EXTERNALLY: Oil of wintergreen may be added to the bath or steam cabinet. The fresh or dried herb put
into a white cotton bag and simmered in a large vessel, adding liquid and container bag to the bathwater,
is effective for joint paints and swellings. Do not immerse the whole body, just waist deep; if the