The
photo at right shows the small evergreen leaf and white, bell-shaped flower
of slender wintergreen. Photographed along road N60 above (SW of) Goose Lake,
Gifford Pinchot NF........June 30, 1990. Note the spreading
hairs on the calyx.
Also known as Oregon wintergreen, slender wintergreen is a slender, much-branched shrublet with prostrate to spreading branches from 10-40 cm long. The younger twigs are often covered with reddish hairs. The leaves are broadly ovate with subcordate bases with short petioles. The blades measure 2-4 cm long and 1.5-3 cm wide. They have lightly toothed margins and green, glabrous upper surfaces.
The flowers are single in the outer leaf axils. The pedicels are very short and extend from minute bracts (See photo below.). The calyx is conspicuously covered with long, reddish hairs and the lobes are triangular in outline and slightly longer than wide. The pendant, white corolla is bell-shaped and about 4 mm long with 5 short, rounded lobes which only flare outwards at their tips. The fruit is a bright red berry from 6-7 mm in diameter.
Slender wintergreen reportedly makes a good ground cover in the forest garden.
Slender wintergreen may be found from dry ponderosa pine forests to subalpine bogs at moderate altitudes in the mountains.
Slender wintergreen may be found from British Columbia south to northern California and east to Idaho.
