Shrubs or subshrubs, (sometimes rhizomatous or stoloniferous and rooting at nodes). Stems erect or procumbent; twigs glabrous or hairy. Leaves persistent, aromatic; blade ovate, elliptic, or orbiculate to subcordate or reniform, coriaceous, margins serrate, crenate, or ciliate, plane or revolute, surfaces glabrous or hairy; venation reticulodromous or brochidodromous. Inflorescences axillary, racemes, 2-12-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary; (bracteoles closely subtending flowers). Flowers: sepals (4-)5, connate basally to nearly their entire lengths, (sometimes exceeding petals), ovate, deltate, or cordate; petals (4-)5, connate ca. 1/2 to nearly their entire lengths, white or cream to pink, corolla urceolate to campanulate, lobes much shorter than tube; stamens 8 or 10, included, (inserted at base of ovary); filaments straight, flattened, usually widest proximally, glabrous or hairy, sometimes papillose, without spurs; anthers with 2-4 awns or without awns, dehiscent by pores with ventral slits, (white disintegration tissue present dorsally along connective); pistil 4-5-carpellate; ovary 5-locular; stigma truncate or capitate. Fruits capsular, 5-valved, globose, fleshy, (surrounded by persistent, fleshy calyx). Seeds 20-80+, ovoid; testa smooth. x = 11, 12, 13. Gaultheria is characterized by its fruit and by the stamens having flattened filaments and awned anthers. All of the species are woody to varying degrees; the growth form varies from erect or spreading shrubs to procumbent or creeping and mat-forming. Eastern Asia and the Andes mountains of South America are centers of diversity for this genus. In North America, the fruits and leaves of Gaultheria are a food source for wildlife, and native peoples have medicinal and food uses for some species. Oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate) is found in the leaves and fruits of some species.