26 



ERICACEAE 



1. G. shallon Pursli. Salal. (Fig. 288.) Slender shrub with erect or spread- 

 ing stems 1 to 6 feet high; leaf-blades ovate or orbicular, slightly cordate at base, 

 finely serrate, 2 to 4 inches long; petioles 1 to 2 lines long; racemes axillary or ter- 

 minal, 3 to 6 inches long, pubescent (as also calyx and corolla) with short glandular 

 hairs; bracts of raceme scaly, ovate, concave, often reddish; pedicels declined, bear- 

 ing 2 bractlets below the middle; calyx reddish; corolla white or pinkish, oval-um- 

 shaped, 5-toothed at the narrow orifice, 4 to 5 lines long; awns of anthei-s bifid. 



Woods along the coast, especially in the Redwood belt, 50 to 2500 feet : Santa 

 Barbara Co. to Del Norte Co. North to British Columbia. I\Iar.-]\Iay. 



Field note. — Gaultheria shallon is one of the most characteristic of forest floor shrubs in the 

 Eedwood belt. Often it is a dominant and, sprouting from the root-crown, forms dense thickets 



4 to 6 feet high. It is also found on open slopes near 

 the ocean, as on the Wildcat grade above Perndale, 

 forming with Pteris aquilina, Rubus parviflorus and 

 Epilobium angustifolium extremely dense thickets. 

 Such a hillside growth vrfth smooth even surface may 

 seem, at a few yards distance, only a foot high, but 

 the traveler entering it sinks down to his shoulders 

 or even disappears from view. On the Point Reyes 

 peninsula where tire destroys the Bishop Pine (Pinus 

 muricata) or the chaparral, Gaultheria shallon, Vae- 

 cinium ovatum, Ceanothus thjTsiflorus, Castanopsis 

 chrysophylla var. minor and Pteris aquilina estab- 

 lish the first suceessional cover. 



Locs.— Santa Inez Mts. (Syn. Fl. 2:30) ; Cerro 

 Alto Mt., San Luis Obispo Co., Condit 4' Waters; 

 betw. Lucia and Mill Creek, Santa Lucia Mts., Jep- 

 son. ; Monterey, Eloise Fife; Mill Valley, Mt. Tamal- 

 pais, Jepson 14,658 ; Calito, Mendocino Co., Jepson 

 14,656; Bull Creek, Humboldt Co., Jepson 16,470; 

 Redwood Creek at Berry's ranch, Jepson 1952; Wil- 

 son Creek, s. Del Norte Co., Jepson. 



Refs. — Gaultheri.i shallon Pursh, Fl. 283 

 (1814), type loe. Columbia River, Lewis: Jepson, Fl. 

 W. Mid. Cal. 373 (1901), ed. 2, 314 (1911), Man. 

 743, fig. 727 (1925). 



Fig. 288. Gaultheria SHALLON Pursh. 

 a, fl. branchlet, X % ; 6, long. sect, of fl., 

 X 2 ; c, stamen, X 4i/^ ; d, cross sect, of 

 ovary, X 4. 



2. G. humif usa Rydb. Ax.pine Winter- 

 green. Stems procumbent, 2 to 8 inches 

 long, foi-ming a loose mat; herbage glabrous 

 or the stems occasionally a little pilose or 

 puberulent; leaf-blades orbicular or oval, ob- 

 scurely or finely crenulate or serrulate or subentire, often setulose-serrulate to- 

 wards apex, 3 to 7 lines long; petioles Vi to i/o line long; flowers solitary and axil- 

 laiy, IV2 to 2 lines long, the pedicels I'o line long with 3 to 5 bractlets; calyx 

 glabrous; corolla white, depressed-campaiuilate, 5-parted, scarcelj' exceeding the 

 calyx; anthers not awned, obscurely 4-pointed at apex. 



Moist slopes or wet meadows, 8000 to 9000 feet : Sierra Nevada in Fresno Co. 

 Rare in California. North to British Columbia and Alberta, ea.st to Colorado. 

 July. 



Locs. — Granite Basin, Kings River, Clemens; Grouse Mdw., LeConte Canon, Peirson 2530. 



Refs.— Gaultheria humifus.'^ Rydb., Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 1:300 (1900) ; Jepson, Man. 

 744 (1925), as to Sierra Nevada plants; Alirams, Madroiio 2:121 (1934). Vaccinium humiftisum 

 Graham, Edinb. New Phil. Jour. 193 (1831), type a garden plant, the seed from the Rocky Mts., 

 Drummond. G. myrsinites Hook., Fl. Bor. Am' 2:35, t. 129 (1834). 



3. G. ovatifolia Gray. Oregon Wintergreen. Stems 4 to 7 inches long, as- 

 cending from long running rootstocks; petioles and stems pilose with nisty hairs; 

 leaf -blades ovate, acute at apex, rounded or subcordate at base, glabrous or nearly 

 so, 1/2 to IV2 inches long; flowers solitary in the axils, 1% to 2 lines long, the pedi- 



