WINTERGREEN

wintergreen, boxberry, checkerberry, teaberry, spiceberry

(noun) spicy red berrylike fruit; source of wintergreen oil

teaberry, wintergreen, checkerberry, mountain tea, groundberry, ground-berry, creeping wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens

(noun) creeping shrub of eastern North America having white bell-shaped flowers followed by spicy red berrylike fruit and shiny aromatic leaves that yield wintergreen oil

wintergreen, pyrola

(noun) any of several evergreen perennials of the genus Pyrola

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

wintergreen (plural wintergreens)

(obsolete) Any evergreen plant.

One of various unrelated evergreen plants, including

Plants in shrub genus Gaultheria, commonly known as wintergreen, especially

Gaultheria procumbens, native to North America, having solitary white flowers and aromatic leaves (checkerberry or teaberry)

Gaultheria humifusa – alpine wintergreen

Gaultheria ovatifolia – western teaberry or Oregon spicy wintergreen

Chimaphila maculata – striped wintergreen, pipsissewa

Plants in any of several other genera in the herbaceous family Ericaceae, including

Genus Pyrola, native to northern temperate and Arctic regions.

Genus Orthilia

Genus Moneses

Genus Chimaphila (prince's pine, pipsissewa)

Some species of the herbaceous genus Trientalis, in family Primulaceae (chickweed wintergreen)

The spicy red berries of Gaultheria procumbens.

The oil, methyl salicylate, obtained from these berries.

The aroma of the oil, methyl salicylate, however derived.

Synonyms

• (perennial of the genus Pyrola): shinleaf

• (Gaultheria procumbens): boxberry, checkerberry, partridgeberry, spiceberry, teaberry

Source: Wiktionary

Win"ter*green`, n. (Bot.)

Definition: A plant which keeps its leaves green through the winter.

Note: In England, the name wintergreen is applied to the species of Pyrola which in America are called English wintergreen, and shin leaf (see Shin leaf, under Shin.) In America, the name wintergreen is given to Gaultheria procumbens, a low evergreen aromatic plant with oval leaves clustered at the top of a short stem, and bearing small white flowers followed by red berries; -- called also checkerberry, and sometimes, though improperly, partridge berry. Chickweed wintergreen, a low perennial primulaceous herb (Trientalis Americana); -- also called star flower.

– Flowering wintergreen, a low plant (Polygala paucifolia) with leaves somewhat like those of the wintergreen (Gaultheria), and bearing a few showy, rose-purple blossoms.

– Spotted wintergreen, a low evergreen plant (Chimaphila maculata) with ovate, white-spotted leaves.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition