Description & Range

PNW Native

Ranges along the west coast of North America, west of the Cascades and from southern Alaska through northern California. 

Shrubs range from 1-8 ft / 0.5 -5 m tall. Growth habit ranges from creeping ground cover to erect thickets. Leaves are large (1.5-5 in / 5 - 10 cm long), oval, finely serrated, leathery, and evergreen. Flowers are small (3/8 in / .75 - 1 cm), urn-shaped with five petals, in clusters of 5-15, and white or light pink. Stems near ends with flowers are reddish, and flowers grow into deep blue-purple berries (3/8 in. / 0.5 - 1 cm long). (all 3 book sources)

Ecology

Salal is a ground-covering shrub and too short to provide cover for animals larger than small mammals or birds. However, it is browsed widely by numerous animals. Salal is preferred by the black-tailed deer population of Queen Charlotte Island. Mule deer and black-tailed deer rely on salal for winter browsing in low-elevation forests, and black-tailed deer eat the flowers of salal in western Washington. The sweet and palatable berries are eaten by numerous birds and mammals including the band-tailed pigeon, wrentit, blue grouse, songbirds, hummingbirds, Douglas squirrel, red squirrel, Townsend’s chipmunk, black-tailed deer, and black bear. Salal is a ground cover in many forest ecosystems: Western hemlock/Oregon grape/vine maple/salal and Sitka spruce/salal communities are used by deer and elk as habitat, and red huckleberry/salal is used by deer in winter for wind cover. (T)

Salal spreads through rhizomes and forms dense, ground-covering thickets. Like other members of Gaultheria, salal partners with symbiotic, nitrogen- and phosphorous- fixing mycorrhizal fungi to grow readily in areas with poor soil. Salal is the predominant ground cover in many local drier coniferous forests in the PNW, including the forests to the south and east of the Shoreline Community College campus. Salal prefers canopies with gaps to allow sunlight passage, but they can survive for years in shady forests by producing large, thin "shade leaves". When sunlight returns, the thicket becomes more dense and produces smaller "sun leaves". (DM) 

Cultural and Historical Significance

David Douglas preferred salal as a choice ornamental and brought it back to Britain in 1828. (PM)

Salal berries were one of the most important staple foods for many tribes of the Northwest coast. In many Coast Salish languages, their equivalent of the month of August is named after the ripening of Salal. Preserved dried cakes of salal could weigh up to 15 lbs each.  Dried berry cakes made from salal, currents, and elderberries, (LC) but cakes made exclusively from salal were reserved for respected family groups at least in the Kwakiutl tribe (DM). These berry cakes were wrapped in skunk cabbage leaves and eaten as winter food, dipped in seal oil or candlefish grease. (DM) The Kwakwaka'wakw ate the berries raw at grand feasts dipped in grease. The Haida thickened salmon roe with salal. The Ditidaht chewed young salal leaves as a hunger suppressant and used the leafy branches in pit-cooking. (PM) The Quileute pick salal with the stem still attached, dip the berry in grease, and eat it fresh as a delicacy. They would also chew salal leaves and spit them on sores, and the S'Klallam would do the same for burns. The Quileute also chewed the leaves as a heartburn and colic treatment. The Makah would mix powdered salal leaves into their smoking blends. The Samish and Swinomish tribes brewed a tea from salal leaves to treat tuberculosis. (EG)

A purple dye can be made from these berries. (DM)

Economics

Salal is used both as an ornamental for landscaping or as a restoration planting. It aggressively spreads along highway roadsides, eroding banks, roadcuts, and other disturbed sites. Salal is used to stabilize coastal sand dunes and watershed protection. When used as an ornamental, it has a propensity to attract wildlife. Florists use the leaves in bouquets under the name “lemon leaf”. (T)