teaberry

Meanings

Plural: teaberries

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
• spicy red berrylike fruit; source of wintergreen oil
• A berry which is the fruit of a small shrub native to northeastern North America, Gaultheria procumbens (eastern teaberry, American wintergreen, boxberry, checkerberry).
• A pinkish-white edible berry which grows in the Falkland Islands, where the fruits are harvested annually by Islanders to make cakes, confectionary and pavlovas. On the South American mainland the leaves are brewed for tea (Myrteola nummularia).

Synonyms

boxberry, checkerberry, creeping wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, ground-berry, groundberry, mountain tea, partridgeberry, spiceberry, wintergreen