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Gaultheria cuneata (Rehd. & Wils.) Bean

Modern name

Gaultheria cuneata (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Bean

Synonyms

Gaultheria pyroloides var. cuneata Rehd. & Wills.

A low evergreen shrub 1 to 112 ft high, of close compact habit; young shoots very downy. Leaves of firm, leathery texture, obovate, oblanceolate, or narrowly oval, pointed, wedge-shaped at the base, shallowly toothed, 12 to 118 in. long, 14 to 12 in. wide, dark glossy green and glabrous above, paler and dotted with dark glands beneath; stalk 116 in. long. Flowers produced from June onwards in a cluster of axillary racemes, each 1 to 112 in. long, near the end of the twigs; main flower-stalk minutely downy. Corolla white, nodding, urn-shaped, 14 in. long, with five small recurved lobes. Stamens ten, enclosed within the corolla, their stalks downy. Calyx whitish, five-lobed, the lobes triangular, 112 in. long, ciliate; ovary silky. Fruits snow-white, globose, and 38 in. wide. Seeds numerous, shining, brown. Bot. Mag., t. 8829.

Native of W. Szechwan, China; introduced in 1909 by Wilson, who found it ‘quite common on humus-clad rocks in moist woods’. It differs from G. miqueliana (q.v.) and pyroloides in the silky ovary and downy fruit; the latter, however, is hidden by the white fleshy calyx. The white ‘berries’ are ripe from August onwards and give the plant an interesting appearance. It is very hardy and makes a pretty, dwarf ground cover.

G. itoana Hayata G. merrilliana Hort. – This species, a native of Formosa, is closely allied to G. cuneata but is most easily distinguished by its narrow leaves, 38 to 58 in. long, 18 to 14 in. wide. It was introduced from Formosa shortly before 1936 by K. Yashiroda, under his number 149, and was at first erroneously known in gardens as G. merrilliana, possibly because one of Yashiroda’s specimens of this gaultheria had been identified as Vaccinium merrillianum, a gaultheria-like species also found in Formosa. It has about the same garden value as G. cuneata but is dwarfer. If the two species were to be united it would be under the name G. itoana, which has priority.


Genus

Gaultheria

Other species in the genus