Bailey sc Bailey: Woody Plants of National Parks 



195 



nth 



juicy, with many tiny 



or nearly black, 

 seeds. 



Salal is a common shrub in the low- 

 land woods of the Pacific Northwest. 

 It grows in moist, shaded Douglas fir 

 and Sitka spruce forests or sometimes in 

 drier locations along with the holly- 

 grape, huckleberries or other shrubs. The 

 species name, shallon, and the common 

 name, salal, are derived from the Indian 

 name of the plant which the early ex- 

 plorers understood as sallon, shalal, or 

 shallon.^- The plant is ordinarily about 

 3 feet tall but along the coast in the 

 northern end of its range it may form 

 extensive thickets 6 or more feet high. 

 The berries are of good flavor. They 

 were eaten raw by the Indians of the 

 Northwest and used to flavor soups. 

 Local residents often gathered them for 

 making jelly. Deer and elk browse 

 the herbage, especially during the winter. 



Occurrence. — OLYMPIC, abundant at the lower elevations; Elwha River, above mouth 

 of Lost River; Mount Angeles. MOUNT RAINIER, abundant, 2,000 to 4,500 feet: Kautz 

 Creek; between Longmire and Paradise Park. 



Fig. 114. Salal (Caultheria shallon). 



2. Checkerberry Wintergreen (Gaulthena proaimbens L.). — Small 

 evergreen plants with stems creeping below the ground and erect flowering 

 branches up to about 6 inches high; herbage aromatic; leaves oval to reverse- 

 egg-shaped, 2/3 to 11/2 inches long, blunt-pointed, bright green above, smooth; 

 flowers white or slightly pinkish, nodding from the axils of the leaves; berries 

 nearly globose, ^ to 2/3 inch in diameter, dark red. 



Occurrence. — ISLE ROYALE, occasional: trail to Mount Franklin; north side of Angle- 

 worm Lake; northwest of Hay Bay. 



3. Western Wintergreen (Gaultheria humijusa (Graham) Rydb. — 

 A small prostrate evergreen shrub 1 to 4 inches high; leaves I/4 to % inch 

 long, oval to egg-shaped or somewhat roundish, rounded or blunt-pointed at 

 the tip, the margin scarcely toothed; flowers small, white, bell-shaped, borne 

 singly on short stalks in the leaf -axils; berries bright red, small, globose, with 

 a sweet flavor. 



Occurrence. — OLYMPIC: Deer Lake; Anderson Pass just above shelter, 4,400 feet. 

 MOUNT RAINIER. CRATER LAKE, rare: upper Annie Creek; Boundary Spring. YOSEM- 

 ITE: Gaylor Lakes; Elizabeth Lake; Young Lake; Snow Flat. KINGS CANYON: 

 Gianlte Basin, Kings River. SEQUOIA: Long Lake in Little Five Lakes Basin. GLA- 

 CIER, occasional in meadows above timberline, 6,000 to 7,500 feet: Iceberg Lake; 



42 Range Plant Handbook B 83: United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Forest service, Washington, D. C. 1937. 



