About 170 species, including:
Gaultheria adenothrix
Gaultheria antarctica
Gaultheria antipoda
Gaultheria caudata
Gaultheria codonantha
Gaultheria cumingiana
Gaultheria cuneata
Gaultheria depressa
Gaultheria eriophylla
Gaultheria forrestii
Gaultheria fragrantissima
Gaultheria hirtiflora
Gaultheria hispida
Gaultheria hispidula
Gaultheria hookeri
Gaultheria humifusa
Gaultheria insana
Gaultheria itoana
Gaultheria lanceolata
Gaultheria macrostigma
Gaultheria miqueliana
Gaultheria mucronata
Gaultheria myrsinoides
Gaultheria nummularioides
Gaultheria oppositifolia
Gaultheria ovatifolia
Gaultheria parvula
Gaultheria phillyreifolia
Gaultheria procumbens
Gaultheria pumila
Gaultheria pyroloides
Gaultheria rupestris
Gaultheria semi-infera
Gaultheria shallon
Gaultheria sinensis
Gaultheria stapfiana
Gaultheria tasmanica
Gaultheria tetramera
Gaultheria thymifolia
Gaultheria tricophylla
Gaultheria veitchiana
Gaultheria wardii
Gaultheria yunnanensis
Gaultheria is a genus of about 170 species of shrubs in the family Ericaceae. They are native to Asia, North and South America, and Australasia. In the past, the Southern Hemisphere species were often treated in a separate genus Pernettya; however, there is no consistent reliable morphological or genetic difference to support recognition of two genera, and they are now united in the single genus Gaultheria.
The species vary from low, ground-hugging shrubs less than 10 cm tall, up to 2.5 m tall, or, in the case of G. fragrantissima from the Himalaya, even a small tree up to 5-6 m tall. The leaves are evergreen, alternate (opposite in G. oppositifolia from New Zealand), simple, and vary between species from 0.3-10 cm long; the margins are finely serrated or bristly in most species, but entire in some. The flowers are solitary or in racemes, bell-shaped, with a five-lobed corolla; flower colour ranges from white to pink to red. The fruit is a fleshy berry in many species, a dry capsule in some, with numerous small seeds.
Uses
Several species are grown as ornamental shrubs in gardens, particularly G. mucronata from southern Chile and G. shallon (Salal) from the Pacific Northwest of North America. The fruit of many species is edible, though insipid in flavour so not extensively eaten.