[cowgirlup]

Earleir this summer I was scouring the woods near the house for edible plants.
I was looking specifically for wintergreen because we have the ideal conditions for it... a pine and hemlock woods. I couldn't find any so I ordered a plant.

2 weeks ago while looking for some low bush blueberries I spotted up the hill during summer, I finally found it.



It was much easier to find when it had berries and also everything is dying off for winter so everything is not so green. So, if you've been out practicing pland ID try it in different seasons and it might be easier.

I brought a couple of plants down to add to my store bought plant.

[Celticwarrior]

The stuff grows like wildfire if you have a proper soil. (Cool, mostly sandy soil, partially shaded, they like pine trees for company, etc.)

We call it Teaberry up here (I don't know, when I think "wintergreen" I think of the mint-like flavor in "Wint-O-Green" lifesavers.), but whatever you call it, the berries are a nice treat, and the leaves are great as a tea, plus they have the same flavor as the berries. Rinse 'em off and chew 'em, and it is just like the old Teaberry gum.

[Screaming Eagle]

I was thinking you were talking about wintergreen mint. Mint (wintergreen, peppermint, chocolate etc) grows like crazy around here.

[cowgirlup]

Yeah, It smells like teaberry (what a great scent!!!) but Gurney's lists it as wintergreen...

[Celticwarrior]

Originally Posted by cowgirlup

Yeah, It smells like teaberry (what a great scent!!!) but Gurney's lists it as wintergreen...

They are the same thing. The "wintergreen" version of mint is just a variety of peppermint. Where you are geographically determines whether you call this plant wintergreen or teaberry. We've always called it that here, and the gum that you used to buy is flavored with it's oil, which is called "wintergreen oil" on the ingredients.

[snowshoe67]

CW is so right grows and speads like wild fire,I too grown some out back. The Berries help you find it. I use it to make Tea,mix in some pine needles.MMMM

[snowshoe67]

Cowgirlup Thanks for sharing the Photo too!!!

[Dick]

From Wintergreen

Wintergreen has its own arsenal of fungicides and bactericides and is seldom infected by disease, however, its delicious flavour and food value is its worst problem. White-tailed deer, black bears and the eastern chipmunk relish the plants and keep it cropped off close to the ground. Ruffed grouse, spruce grouse, ring-necked pheasants and wild turkeys eat both berries and leaves. Honey bees use the high-quality nectar during dry weather to make a superior honey.

It is as a medicinal herb that wintergreen is best known. Oil of wintergreen, distilled from the leaves, is composed primarily of methyl salicylate, a poison if used in large quantities. Minute amounts of this oil are used in flavouring toothpaste and other dental products, candy and lozenges. Aspirin, the most widely used drug after tobacco and caffeine, was originality extracted from wintergreen. When the poison (methyl) is removed from the oil, the crystalline material left behind is acetylsalicylic acid, the effective ingredient in aspirin.

As well as oil, the leaves of wintergreen contain a compound called arbutin. This material is more stable when it is heated than when it is cold, meaning that it retains its medicinal qualities when heated or rubbed into muscles for treating various aches and pains including rheumatism. A few drops of wintergreen oil on a soft cloth and placed on the brow is a common time-proven cure for headaches. As well, the stems of the plant are chewed by people around the world to prevent tooth decay.

Unfortunately I have never seen it around here. I remember seeing it in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick though.

[Omegaman]

I chew the leaves while hunting or just out in the woods even with out the berries it is easy to identify because when you bend or break the leaves it smells like teaberry. I think I have had teaberry tea in the past. The berries are so tasty.