Salal

Day 253: Salal (Gaultheria shallon) is a common understory plant here in the Pacific Northwest. Given optimum conditions, it can grow to six feet in height, but even less lofty stands of it could be described as the proverbial "impenetrable thicket." The leaves are leathery and stiff. The stems, flowers and berries are fuzzy and sticky (imagine velvet-like, resinous Velcro). Although they are not prickly or hard to remove like burrs, Salal flowers will adhere to fabrics such as wool socks or soft cotton shirts and leave your fingers feeling sticky after you've pulled off a dozen or so. The black berries resemble blueberries superficially, and are mildly sweet and edible. They can be made into jam or jelly; however, they are not particularly juicy and you'll have to gather more than you might expect. They can also be dried and used as an unusual snack. The foliage is wantonly harvested locally by those in the floral trade because it does not wilt, a practice which is leading to a decline in the plant regionally.

A funny aside here: when I was young (eight or nine), my mother warned me that some black-coloured berries might be poisonous. Because she was unfamiliar with Salal, she included it in her caution. I was horrified when a friend picked and ate them as we walked half a mile to the school bus stop, and for several days, I watched her closely, waiting for her to exhibit symptoms or drop dead. When she did neither, the incident fueled a growing distrust of my mother's botanical skills which had also informed me that red Huckleberries were poisonous, but on the same hand, it spurred me into further research to find out exactly which black berries she might have been trying to prevent me from eating. Nevertheless, I always viewed Salal with a certain degree of skepticism as regards its edibility. I did not try them for myself until I was an adult.