Gaultheria is a genus of flowering plants in family Ericaceae, comprising about 170-180 species. It is native to Asia, North and South America, and Australasia.
Gaultheria are evergreen shrubs with spring and summer flowers and have colorful autumn berries. They are good groundcover in woodland gardens or rock gardens. The species can be ground-hugging low of about 10cm tall, up to 2.5 m tall or even taller at 5-6m. The leaves are evergreen, alternate, simple and varying in size from 0.3-10 cm long. The flowers are solitary or in racemes, bell-shaped, with five-lobed corolla, and colors ranging from white to pink to red. The fruit is a fleshy berry or dry capsule, with numerous small seeds.
Gaultheria mucronata has glossy, spiny, dark green leaves and bears white, pink-tinged flowers in late spring to early summer and these are followed by round berries which may be white, pink, lilac, purple or red color. Plant the male (non-fruiting) and female plants together to ensure a good display of berries.
G.cuneata bears racemes of white flowers in late spring to early summer, followed by white berries.
Gaultheria is easy to grow, and needs partial shade, moisture-retentive, in acid to neutral soil to grow best. Propagation is by seed in autumn or by semi-ripe cuttings in summer.
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