Shallon/ salal, Gaultheria shallon
The fruit can be eaten raw, cooked or dried for later use. Sweet and juicy with a pleasant flavour, it makes good raw eating.
The fruit can also be made into preserves, pies, drinks etc or be dried and used like raisins.
The fruit is about 10mm in diameter and is produced over a period of several weeks in late summer.
A pleasant tea is made from the leaves.
A poultice of the toasted, pulverized leaves has been applied to cuts.
A poultice of the chewed leaves has been applied to burns and sores.
The leaves have been chewed to dry the mouth.
An infusion of the leaves have been used as a stomach tonic and a treatment for diarrhoea, coughs, TB etc.
A ground cover plant for a shady position under trees, spreading slowly by means of suckers. It should be spaced about 90cm apart each way.