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.

Egg-shaped salal leaves are evergreen, tough and shiny, edged with fine, sharp teeth. The flowers, small white or pinkish bells, hang from the branch tips in one-sided clusters. Edible and about the size of a blueberry, salal berries are round, slightly hairy and dark blue-purple when ripe. They contain numerous seeds, giving them a mealy texture that some find unpleasant. Salal seeds are so tiny that it takes 7687 seeds to make just one gram.

Salal spreads by underground horizontal stems called rhizomes, more often than by seed. Due to its rhizomatous nature, salal can form vast colonies. In one study, it was found that 218 metres of rhizomes, occupying an area of 29 square metres, grew from just one clonal fragment.

Salal is usually found in damp, low-light conditions, where it forms the primary understory beneath trees. But this adaptable plant can be found in very wet, boggy places, as well fairly dry spots. Salal is not only adaptable, but indestructible. It can be razed to the ground, burnt, and it will just come back all the stronger. The flexible, wiry stems and leathery leaves enable it to take the weight of heavy, wet snow, which might flatten other shrubs.

The height of the plant is variable, ranging from about knee height to a towering five metres. Salal thickets are notoriously dense, and are often an obstacle for hikers. In the words of author C.P. Lyons, “I found the dense jungle growth of Yucatan, Mexico a golf course compared to our own impenetrable coastal salal thickets!”

According to ethno-botanist Nancy Turner, salal berries are “without a doubt the most plentiful and widely used fruit on the coast.” Salal berries were highly prized by all coastal First Nations groups. Berries were harvested in the late summer and were eaten fresh and stored for winter.

For storage, the berries were often mashed and boiled, and let to dry and thicken in rectangular cedar frames, producing salal “cakes.” The cakes were later soaked, kneaded and mixed with grease, before being eaten with special black spoons which wouldn’t show berry stains, made from the horn of a Mountain Goat. Pure salal berry cakes were reserved special occasions, and were often offered to chiefs at feasts. For commoners, and for trading, “cheap” cakes were made with other berries mixed in, such as red elderberry and currants.Salal berries were generally used as a sweetener, and the Haida used them to thicken salmon eggs. Today, salal berries continue to be valued and stored in the form of jams and preserves.

Early explorers and botanists from Europe were very impressed with salal. Scottish botanist David Douglas (1799-1834), first encountered the plant in 1825:
“On stepping on the shore Gaultheria shallon was the first plant I took in my hands. So pleased was I that I could scarcely see anything but it…. it grows under thick pine-forests in great luxuriance and would make a valuable addition to our gardens.” Douglas brought salal seed to Britain in 1828, for use as a garden ornamental, for which it became well known. Though Douglas also suggested commercial production of salal berries, this never caught on.

Today, the long-lasting green foliage of salal is highly sought after as a green backdrop for use in floral arrangements. Salal picking is a big business here, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. For the year of 2002 in the state of Washington, it was estimated that salal and other non-timber forest products were worth as much as $236 million.

Salal is a valuable shrub on many levels. Its glossy green leaves are aesthetically beautiful, and it is economically valuable both as a landscaping plant, and as floral foliage. Traditionally, its berries were a staple food for peoples up and down the coast. Salal is a plant that can really connect us to where we live, in both a historical and present day context. Every school kid, and adult, should know it.

For those wishing to learn more about salal, UBC English Professor Laurie Ricou has written an entire book on the subject: “Salal: Listening for the Northwest Understory” covering every aspect of the plant from poetry to commercial harvesting. Ethno-botanist Nancy Turner’s excellent book “The Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples” is also a good reference.

Filed under Nature Writing | Tags: Berries, Salal | Comment (1)