Salal

Halq’emeylem Name

Fruit: t’aqa
Shrub: t’aqá:lhp

Latin Name

Gaultheria shallon Pursh

About Salal

“Salal is a creeping to erect shrub that varies in height from 0.2-5 m (ca. 8 in to ca. 16.5 ft) tall. It has thick, leathery leaves that stay green all year long. The flowers are white or pinkish, urn-shaped, and produce reddish-blue to dark purple “berries.” Actually, these “berries” consist mostly of fleshy sepals, the small leaflike structures found at the bases of the flowers. which surround the true fruit. Salal occurs in coniferous forests and on rocky bluffs to the seashore, from low to middle elevations throughout coastal British Columbia.” (SFU)

Connections

Shakespeare

The plant is in the garden because it is Indigenous to the BC Coast.

Though not a Shakespeare poem, we love the poem “Late Love” by Jan Zwicky that features salal, available here.  We thank Beverly Jones for the connection! 

Indigenous Knowledge

Eat and harvest in August when ripe, or dried, or as a sweetener (Siyámíya).

“Traditionally dried as cakes,” they “also make great jam or jelly” (stolofoodways.com).

 

Gallery

References

Images: John Rusk | CAJC: in the PNW | Jinx McCombs

(Íhtelstexw Te Shxwelí (Feeding the Soul): Stó:lō Foodways. Stó:lō Elders and Knowledge Keepers. Curated by Teresa Carlson. University of the Fraser Valley, 2022. https://www.stolofoodway

Integrated Taxonomic Information System. (n.d.). Gaultheria shallon Pursh. Retrieved from
https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=23658#null

Simon Fraser University. (n.d.). Salal. Retrieved from
https://www.sfu.ca/halk-ethnobiology/html/plants/salal.htm

Siyámíya (Dianna N. Kay).  “Medicinal Plants of the Fraser Valley In Your Back Yard.”  

University of Victoria. (March 1, 2018). New research yields berry interesting results. Retrieved from
https://www.uvic.ca/news/topics/2018+salal-berries-constabel+news

Zwicky, Jan.  “Late Love.” MĀNOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. Volume 25, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 62-65.