Authors: L. f.   Gaudich.   Spreng.   L.  

Botanical Description

Gaultheria mucronata). Bushy suckering shrub eventually forming thickets 60-120cm high and twice as wide or more. Leaves oval to ovate or oblong-elliptic, 1.2-1.4cm long, toothed and prickle-tipped, deep green, more or less lustrous. Flowers white, ovoid to urn-shaped, 4-6mm long, solitary from all the upper leaf axils usually functionally male or female, early summer. Fruits globose to oblate, 8-12mm across, glossy white, red, pink or lilac. (At least twenty named clones are commercially available, mainly based upon fruit colour including the red hermaphrodite 'Bells Seedling' and 'Thymifolia' a smaller, narrower-leaved male). Central Chile and adjacent Argentina, in a variety of mountain habitats from open volcanic slopes to open forest. Too vigorous for the rock garden. 'Stag River' is smaller growing and hermaphrodite.