Wintergreen is a low-growing, creeping ground cover plant with solitary white bell-shaped flowers, aromatic leaves, and spicy edible scarlet berries. The berries are followed by its drooping flowers and because the wintergreen blooms twice every year, plants will often carry both.
Reaching no higher than four inches, wintergreen prefers to grow in shady spots and, as the name suggests, is an evergreen plant. Wintergreen's oval shaped leaves develop a dark red shade in autumn and can be boiled to make a tea that is said to help alleviate upset stomachs.
Wintergreen grows by shoots from the main root. Like most ground covers, these travel along below ground and then surface several inches away from the mother plant.
Wintergreen ground cover is quite slow growing, spreading by just about four inches annually, and the root system is very shallow, leaving it to grow in harmony with pre-established plants in the same area.