Gaultheria shallon
Evergreen shrub with edible berries and medicinal uses.
**Gaultheria shallon** is an evergreen shrub belonging to the heather family (Ericaceae). It is native to western North America and goes by the common names salal, shallon, or, especially in Britain, gaultheria.
This plant ranges from 0.4 to 3.05 meters (1½ to 10 feet) tall, growing either sprawling or upright. It branches loosely to densely and often forms thick, nearly impassable stands. Its twigs are reddish-brown with peeling bark and can live up to 16 years or more, though they only bear leaves for the first few years. The leaves are alternate, evergreen, leathery, thick, and egg-shaped. They are shiny and dark green on top, rough and lighter green underneath. Each leaf is 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) long, with fine, sharp teeth along the edges, and typically lasts 2 to 4 years before being replaced.
The flowers grow in a one-sided, bract-covered raceme at the ends of branches, with 5 to 15 flowers per cluster. Each flower has a deeply five-parted, glandular-haired calyx and an urn-shaped, pink to white corolla that is glandular to hairy and five-lobed, measuring 7 to 10 millimeters (¼ to ⅜ inch) long. The fruit is reddish to blue, rough-surfaced, covered in tiny hairs, nearly spherical, and 6 to 10 mm in diameter. These are pseudoberries—capsules made of a fleshy outer calyx—each containing an average of 126 brown, net-patterned seeds about 0.1 mm long. The berries are edible.
The name "shallon" (or "shelwel" or "shellwell") was reported by Lewis and Clark from the local Chinook Jargon. When Scottish naturalist David Douglas arrived at Fort George in April 1825, he noted the plant was called "salal" or "sallal," not shallon. The genus *Gaultheria* was named by Pehr Kalm for his guide in Canada, fellow botanist Jean François Gaultier. In the Squamish language, the fruits are called *t’áḵa7* and the bush *t’áḵa7áy̓*. In the Saanich dialect, salal berries are called *DAḴE*. In Lushootseed, the month of August is *pədt̕aqaʔ*, meaning "time of the salal."
Salal is found from Southeast Alaska through British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, and along much of the California coast, as far north as Baranof Island, Alaska. In the California Coast Ranges, it commonly grows alongside western poison oak.
Quick Facts
- Genus
- Gaultheria
- Species
- shallon
Facts from the source article.
Reader's Guide
Gaultheria shallon plays a multifaceted role in both natural and human contexts. Ecologically, it forms dense thickets in conifer forests, providing cover and food for deer, elk, birds, and small mammals. Its leaves are a critical winter food for deer, though of low nutritional value. The plant is adapted to infrequent fires, resprouting from rhizomes after light to moderate burns. In Britain, introduced in 1828, it has become invasive in heathlands, smothering native vegetation, though traditional cattle grazing can control it. Culturally, Native American tribes used the berries fresh, dried into cakes, as a sweetener, and to thicken salmon eggs; leaves flavored fish soup. Medicinally, leaves have astringent properties, used in tea or tincture for inflammation, indigestion, and menstrual cramps, and as a poultice for insect bites. Commercially, salal is a major crop in the Pacific Northwest for cut evergreens in floral arrangements, sold as 'Lemon Leaf.' Its ability to dominate understories and its resistance to herbicides due to waxy foliage make it both a valuable resource and a challenging invasive species.
Did You Know?
- The fruit is a pseudoberry made up of a fleshy outer calyx, containing an average of 126 tiny seeds.
- Salal leaves composed 30.4% of deer diet by volume in January in Western Washington, but only 0.5% in June.
- The plant was introduced to Britain in 1828 by David Douglas, who intended it as an ornamental and pheasant cover.
- In the Lushootseed language, the month of August is named pədt̕aqaʔ, meaning 'time of the salal.'
More in Canadian cuisine 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced