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Gaultheria

Gaultheria
Family: Ericaceae
Gaultheria image
Paul Rothrock
  • FNA
  • Gleason & Cronquist
  • Resources
Debra K. Trock in Flora of North America (vol. 8)
Shrubs or subshrubs, (sometimes rhizomatous or stoloniferous and rooting at nodes). Stems erect or procumbent; twigs glabrous or hairy. Leaves persistent, aromatic; blade ovate, elliptic, or orbiculate to subcordate or reniform, coriaceous, margins serrate, crenate, or ciliate, plane or revolute, surfaces glabrous or hairy; venation reticulodromous or brochidodromous. Inflorescences axillary, racemes, 2-12-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary; (bracteoles closely subtending flowers). Flowers: sepals (4-)5, connate basally to nearly their entire lengths, (sometimes exceeding petals), ovate, deltate, or cordate; petals (4-)5, connate ca. 1/2 to nearly their entire lengths, white or cream to pink, corolla urceolate to campanulate, lobes much shorter than tube; stamens 8 or 10, included, (inserted at base of ovary); filaments straight, flattened, usually widest proximally, glabrous or hairy, sometimes papillose, without spurs; anthers with 2-4 awns or without awns, dehiscent by pores with ventral slits, (white disintegration tissue present dorsally along connective); pistil 4-5-carpellate; ovary 5-locular; stigma truncate or capitate. Fruits capsular, 5-valved, globose, fleshy, (surrounded by persistent, fleshy calyx). Seeds 20-80+, ovoid; testa smooth. x = 11, 12, 13.

Gaultheria is characterized by its fruit and by the stamens having flattened filaments and awned anthers. All of the species are woody to varying degrees; the growth form varies from erect or spreading shrubs to procumbent or creeping and mat-forming. Eastern Asia and the Andes mountains of South America are centers of diversity for this genus.

In North America, the fruits and leaves of Gaultheria are a food source for wildlife, and native peoples have medicinal and food uses for some species. Oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate) is found in the leaves and fruits of some species.

Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Fls 4-5-merous; cal closely subtended by 2 bracteoles, campanulate to saucer-shaped, deeply divided; cor tubular to campanulate, shallowly lobed; stamens included; filaments short, flat; anthers oblong, the pollen-sacs separate or nearly so, each tipped by 2 erect awns; ovary 4-5-locular, wholly or partly superior; style short, columnar; stigma truncate; capsule thin-walled, completely enclosed in the fleshy, white or colored, accrescent cal, forming a dry or mealy berry-like fr with a characteristic flavor; erect to creeping shrubs with alternate, persistent lvs and usually white fls in racemes or panicles or (in our spp.) solitary in or just above the axils. 150, widespread.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Species within inventory project: Arizona Flora || << 1 - 50 taxa >>
Gaultheria acuminata
Media resource of Gaultheria acuminata
Map not
Available
Gaultheria adenothrix
Media resource of Gaultheria adenothrix
Map not
Available
Gaultheria amoena
Media resource of Gaultheria amoena
Map not
Available
Gaultheria anastomosans
Media resource of Gaultheria anastomosans
Map not
Available
Gaultheria angustifolia
Media resource of Gaultheria angustifolia
Map not
Available
Gaultheria antarctica
Media resource of Gaultheria antarctica
Map not
Available
Gaultheria antipoda
Media resource of Gaultheria antipoda
Map not
Available
Gaultheria appressa
Media resource of Gaultheria appressa
Map not
Available
Gaultheria barbigera
Media resource of Gaultheria barbigera
Map not
Available
Gaultheria borneensis
Media resource of Gaultheria borneensis
Map not
Available
Gaultheria bracteata
Media resource of Gaultheria bracteata
Map not
Available
Gaultheria buxifolia
Media resource of Gaultheria buxifolia
Map not
Available
Gaultheria cardiosepala
Media resource of Gaultheria cardiosepala
Map not
Available
Gaultheria chiriquensis
Media resource of Gaultheria chiriquensis
Map not
Available
Gaultheria ciliisepala
Media resource of Gaultheria ciliisepala
Map not
Available
Gaultheria ciliolata
Media resource of Gaultheria ciliolata
Map not
Available
Gaultheria cinnamomifolia
Media resource of Gaultheria cinnamomifolia
Map not
Available
Gaultheria colensoi
Media resource of Gaultheria colensoi
Map not
Available
Gaultheria commutata
Media resource of Gaultheria commutata
Map not
Available
Gaultheria crassa
Media resource of Gaultheria crassa
Map not
Available
Gaultheria crassifolia
Media resource of Gaultheria crassifolia
Map not
Available
Gaultheria depressa
Media resource of Gaultheria depressa
Map not
Available
Gaultheria domingensis
Media resource of Gaultheria domingensis
Map not
Available
Gaultheria dumicola
Media resource of Gaultheria dumicola
Map not
Available
Gaultheria edulis
Media
not available
Map not
Available
Gaultheria empetrifolia
Media resource of Gaultheria empetrifolia
Map not
Available
Gaultheria erecta
Media resource of Gaultheria erecta
Map not
Available
Gaultheria eriophylla
Media
not available
Map not
Available
Gaultheria foliolosa
Media resource of Gaultheria foliolosa
Map not
Available
Gaultheria fragrantissima
Media resource of Gaultheria fragrantissima
Map not
Available
Gaultheria glaucifolia
Media resource of Gaultheria glaucifolia
Map not
Available
Gaultheria glomerata
Media resource of Gaultheria glomerata
Map not
Available
Gaultheria gracilipes
Media resource of Gaultheria gracilipes
Map not
Available
Gaultheria gracilis
Media resource of Gaultheria gracilis
Map not
Available
Gaultheria griffithiana
Media resource of Gaultheria griffithiana
Map not
Available
Gaultheria haemantha
Media resource of Gaultheria haemantha
Map not
Available
Gaultheria hapalotricha
Media resource of Gaultheria hapalotricha
Map not
Available
Gaultheria heterophylla
Media resource of Gaultheria heterophylla
Map not
Available
Gaultheria hidalgensis
Media resource of Gaultheria hidalgensis
Map not
Available
Gaultheria hirtiflora
Media resource of Gaultheria hirtiflora
Map not
Available
Gaultheria hispida
Media resource of Gaultheria hispida
Map not
Available
Gaultheria hispidula
Media resource of Gaultheria hispidula
Map not
Available
Gaultheria hookeri
Media resource of Gaultheria hookeri
Map not
Available
Gaultheria howellii
Media resource of Gaultheria howellii
Map not
Available
Gaultheria humifusa
Media resource of Gaultheria humifusa
Map not
Available
Gaultheria hypochlora
Media resource of Gaultheria hypochlora
Map not
Available
Gaultheria insana
Media resource of Gaultheria insana
Map not
Available
Gaultheria insignis
Media resource of Gaultheria insignis
Map not
Available
Gaultheria insipida
Media resource of Gaultheria insipida
Map not
Available
Gaultheria itatiaiae
Media resource of Gaultheria itatiaiae
Map not
Available
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