Simply Salal

Thinking about salal, I can visualize the crisp, shiny green leaves sweeping through the understory, mounding up over the big stumps left from long-ago logging. I can hear the leaves slip and slap against my jacket as I bushwhack through thickets. I’ve seen its delicate rows of white bell-like flowers, and tasted the sweet, seedy dark purple berries. Salal is one of the most common native shrubs of the Pacific Northwest, and is, in my opinion, as emblematic of the coast as salmon or cedar trees. Salal (Gaultheria shallon) is a member of the Heather family, or Ericaceae, which includes many woody-stemmed shrubs, like rhododendrons, azaleas and laurel. Continue reading »

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