Common Names
Checkerberry wintergreen, aromatic wintergreen, berried tea, boxberry, Canadian tea, checkerberry, chequerberry, chidkerberry, clink, creeping wintergreen, deerberry, dewberry, ground holly, ground ivy, grouse berry, hillberry, ivory plum, mountain berry, mountain tea, mountain teaberry, partridge berry, pigeonberry, red-berry tea, red pollom, roxberry, spiceberry, spicy wintergreen, spring wintergreen, teaberry, three-leaved wintergreen, trailing gautheria, wax cluster, winterberry, wintergreen.

Description
A low, creeping, aromatic, evergreen shrub, with 2- to 6-inches branches. Leaves are shiny and waxy. Single white, nodding flowers are in racemes in axils. Produces bright red berries in fall and winter.

Flowering Period
June to August.

Habitat
Sterile woods and clearings, dry wooded areas; commonly found growing with rhododendron, mountain laurel, and other members of the heath family.

Harvest
Herb and leaves in fall.

Uses
The plant is primarily a source of true wintergreen oil, which is used as a flavor, counterirritant, astringent, and carminative. Wintergreen oil is extremely toxic if consumed internally.