The small, sweet berries of this species are
delicious and may be eaten fresh, served with cream. and sugar or cooked in
sauces. Their flavour improves after first frost, so they are at their best in
fall or winter (even under the snow if you are really persistent.) The dry, crushed, berries and leaves are also used
to make strong aromatic tea.
All false-wintergreens contain methyl salicylate (similar
to the aspirin which is derived from willow. Like aspirin, it is an effective
pain killer).
WARNING: OIL OF WINTERGREEN CONTAINS METHYL SALICYLIC, A DRUG THAT
HAS CAUSED ACCIDENTAL POISONINGS. I SHOULD NEVER BE TAKEN INTERNALLY, EXCEPT IN
VERY SMALL AMOUNTS Avoid applying the oil, or any creams, whn you are hot,
because dangerous amounts could still be absorbed through the open pores of
your skin. Although usually less severe, like poison ivy and oak, it is known
to cause skin reactions. People who are allergic to aspirin should not use any
of false-wintergreens or relatives there of.
It provides
fragrance to various products such as toothpaste, chewing gum and candy. It is a
flavouring agent (at no more than 0.04 percent), and an ingredient in DEEP – HEAT
sport creams. The oil is a source of triboluminescence,
a phenomenon in which a substance produces light when rubbed, scratched, or
crushed. The oil, when missed with sugar, and dried, builds up an
electrical charge that releases electrical sparks when ground, producing the (once,
long before television, a great attraction to kids)the Wint-O-Green
Lifesavers optical phenomenon. To observe this: look in a mirror, in a dark
room, and chew the candy, with your mouth open.
Salal,Gaultheria shallon, (shown above) can be upright or
ground crawling. Salal can also be sparse or form a dense
barrier almost impossible to penetrate. The names salal and shallon are both
presumed to be of North American origin: the former name is presumed to be from
Chinook jargon sallal, and the latter is presumed to be from another native
word the approximate pronunciation of which was recorded by Lewis and Clark as
"shelwel, shellwell" but, of course, not only did the indigenous North American natives existing at that time, not use our alphabet; even the way we utter the letter sounds of said alphabet have changed, drastically; so that pronunciation is very, very, approximate, indeed. The genus Gaultheria was named by Pehr Kalm for
his guide in Canada, fellow botanist Jean-François Gaultier.
Salal berries were once one of the most important crops
to many of the Aboriginal or Indigenous inhabitants of British Columbia. They
were used in soups, stews, and made into fruit leather. These sweet berries are
almost unknown in other parts of North America. They have a strong, unique and
pleasing flavour. Jellied salal tastes wonderful on toast, crepes, and pancakes
or in sauces for meats, fowl and game.
FASCINATING
FACTS:
Salal
spreads by suckering layer upon layer and is probably the most dominant shrub
in the British Columbia coastal forest area.
- the strong, flexible branches and stems of the Salal
plant are well designed to withstand the wet heavy snows; they merely bend
instead of breaking
- Salal berries were a major food source for BC's native
peoples.
Alpine
False –wintergreen, Gaultheria humifusia has long glossy leaves
rounded to blunt at tips with pink or green-white, 5 lobed flowers and scarlet
pulpy berries. These berries are drier and not as palatable as other Gaultheria
species. Grows in moist to wet sub-alpine meadows in southern British Columbia
Also called: alpine wintergreen, and creeping wintergreen.
Hairy
False-wintergreen, Gaultaheria hispidula, has tiny, stiff, flat
lying, brown hairs on its stems and lower leaf surfaces. Leafs are very small
and the flowers are very tiny, 4 lobed. The berries of this false evergreen are
white, small, and on a short stock. They persist through fall and winter. Grows
in cold, wet bogs and coniferous forests in mountain and sub-alpine zones.
Associated with acid soils and often grows in mosses under conifers, or on
rotting logs, along the edges of swamps, or bogs. Also called creeping SNOW
BERRY
Slender
False-wintergreen , Gaulheria ovatifolia, is very similar to
alpine false wintergreen except that it has red hairy (rather than
hairless)calyxes ant pointed long leaves. Grows in moist to wet British
Columbia forests, heaths and bogs in mountain and sub-alpine Southern sites.
© Al (Alex,Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved.
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