226 ERICACEAE 



ranges from Newfoundland to Alaska and south to Georgia 

 and Illinois. In Illinois, it is recorded only from Lake and 

 Cook counties and is at the present time possibly extinct, 

 except in a bog near Volo in Lake County. 



GAULTHERIA (Kalm) Linnaeus 

 Creeping Wintergreen 



Creeping wintergreens are shrubs or undershrubs with alter- 

 nate, long-persistent leaves and perfect flowers borne singly 

 in axils or in axillary racemes. There are 5 sepals and an 

 urn-shaped corolla inclosing the 10 stamens. The ovary and 

 the capsule are 5-celled and 5-lobed. The calyx and other 

 flower structures enlarge and become fleshy, inclose the cap- 

 sule, and form a berry-like fruit. 



There are about 100 species in this genus, most of which 

 occur in the Andes Mountains in South America. A few, 

 however, are North American and Asiatic, and the following 

 is native in Illinois. 



GAULTHERIA PROCUMBENS Linnaeus 

 Creeping Wintergreen Checkerberry 



The Creeping Wintergreen, fig. 59, is a prostrate shrub with 

 creeping, underground stems, from which rise branches 2 to 6 

 inches long that rarely are branched and usually are woolly 

 pubescent among the leaves at the top. The leaves occur 3 to 7 

 together toward the end of the branches, and are persistent, 

 aromatic when bruised, thick and leathery, and oval to nearly 

 round. The blades are ^ to 2 inches long by about Yl ^^ ll/^ 

 inches w^ide, crenate on the margins with bristle-tipped, low 

 teeth, apiculate and rounded or, rarely, acute at the apex, and 

 narrowed or, rarely, rounded at the base. The surface is 

 smooth above or pubescent on the midrib and glabrous be- 

 neath. The petioles are short, about i^ inch long, and more 

 or less woolly. 



White flowers, borne singly in the axils of leaves, appear 

 from about the first of July on to the middle of August. Fruit 

 matures late in October and in November as bright red, flat- 

 tened, globose, fleshy structures, which persist on the plants until 

 late the following spring, increasing in size during that time. 



