Salal

Highlights

Salal (Gaultheria shallon, say gawl-THEER-ee-uh) is the glossy evergreen that carpets the forest floor along the Pacific coast, from Alaska to California. In a sunny clearing it stays ankle-high. In shade and good soil it can reach 4 to 10 feet. Late spring hangs rows of small white or pinkish urns off the branch tips, and by late summer those have turned into reddish-blue to dark purple berries that birds, bears and people all eat.

You’ve probably held it without knowing. Florists sell the leaves as lemon leaf, and they’re shipped across the world. At home, it’s one of the best ways to cover the dim, rooty ground under big conifers, as long as you live where it does.

Is salal a good choice for my yard?

Yes, if…

• You garden in the cool, damp Pacific Northwest or along the northern California coast. Mild winters, gray summers and acidic soil are what salal is built for.
• You have shade under big trees. NC State lists it for partial to full shade, and the half-lit ground under Douglas fir is its home turf.
• You garden by the ocean. It handles salt spray and commonly forms dense stands in coastal shrub country.
• You’re pulling out English ivy. Salal gives you the same evergreen cover, plus berries the birds will eat.

Skip it if…

• You want a plant that stays put. Once it settles in, it spreads aggressively by underground stems. Give it room or a hard edge.
• Your soil is alkaline or soggy clay. It wants acid soil below pH 6.0 and good drainage.
• Your spot gets hot afternoon sun. Away from the cool coast, direct summer sun causes scorch.
• You’re outside its range. Salal is native to just four states on the Pacific coast. In the East, try its little cousin wintergreen instead.

Why salal matters

The berries feed a long list of animals. The Forest Service says salal fruit is readily eaten by many birds and mammals, and Portland State’s garden ecology project names ruffed, spruce, and blue grouse and band-tailed pigeons among the birds. Bears eat them too.

It’s a host plant for the brown elfin, a small brown butterfly of early spring. Across the genus, Gaultheria host 14 native moths and butterflies in the Shropshire-Tallamy caterpillar records.

In many areas it’s also an important winter food for black-tailed and mule deer, and elk browse it as well. Native peoples of the coast ate the berries fresh, dried, or mashed into cakes.

Where salal shines in your yard

• Under conifers, in the shade where grass gives up.
• In place of English ivy on a shady bank.
• A coastal garden with wind and salt in the air.
• An informal hedge that grows into a loose, shoulder-high screen in shade.
• A cutting patch for winter arrangements.

How to grow salal

When to plant

Fall, just before the rains, so the wet season does the watering while the roots settle. Early spring works too.

Light decides the size

Salal looks like a different plant in sun and shade. Oregon State puts it at less than 2 ft tall in full sun and poor soil, and 4 to 10 feet in shade and good soil.

Soil and water

Acidic soil that stays moist but drains. It grows best in moist sandy or peaty soils, and on dry, shallow ground it stays small and mat-like. Water a new plant every week or so through its first summer. After that, plants in shade under conifers mostly look after themselves; in sun, keep the roots from drying out.

Give it room

Be patient at first, because initial seedling growth is slow. Then it starts running. Plant it where a path, lawn edge or driveway will stop it, or where you want a solid patch.

Cutting and cleanup

If a patch gets leggy, cut the stems near the base and it sprouts back. Leaf spots show up in wet years; Oregon State’s plant disease handbook suggests removing spotted leaves and avoiding overhead irrigation.

In the wild, salal grows with western sword fern, Oregon grape and vine maple under the big conifers. Its closest relative in the East is wintergreen, a groundcover only 4 to 8 inches tall whose leaves smell and taste like the candy.

The green in your bouquet

Pull apart a florist’s bouquet and some of the glossy greens may well be salal. Pacific Northwest salal has been sold commercially since the early 1900s. Harvesters cut it in the woods of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia and sell it to buying “sheds,” which ship it to city markets, and some goes on to European markets.

It’s big business. One study of harvesters on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, based on interviews from 2001 to 2003, describes a “multi-million dollar floral greens industry” worked largely by migrant and immigrant harvesters. Cut salal keeps for a long time in the cooler. It’s normally stored at or slightly below freezing, and wholesalers can refrigerate plants for weeks to wait for a better price.

What are good pairings for salal?

Build a little piece of Northwest forest: western sword fern and bunchberry at its feet, trilliums and bleeding heart for spring, and goatsbeard and native rhododendrons behind. Inside-out flower and western wild ginger like the same shade.

Where can I buy salal?

Look for it at native nurseries and native plant society sales in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. It can be difficult to grow in a nursery, so buy from a grower that knows it, and never dig plants from the woods. Start with our list of native plant nurseries or order online.

Salal is a quiet plant with a big job: it covers hard shade, feeds birds and deer, and stays green all winter. Give it acidic soil and room to roam and it will fill in the ground under your trees for good. For more evergreen cover in the same shade, see our guide to native ferns. Happy planting!

Written by

Emily Lessard

Founder & Editor, The Plant Native

Emily Lessard is the founder and editor of The Plant Native, the site that helps homeowners across North America get started with native plants. She holds a Sustainable Landscapes certificate through the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association, is finishing a Native Perennial Garden Design Certificate at Temple University, and is the author of Plant Native: A Practical Guide to Over 100 Native Plants of North America (Quarto, March 2027). She gardens outside Philadelphia in the 8.3 Southeastern Plains ecoregion.

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Updated October 12, 2026Find more: Acidic · Edible · Evergreen · Evergreen Shrub · Shrub

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