Wintergreen. Checkerberry
Almost every one knows the little cherry-red wintergreen berry or checkerberry, and almost every one likes its sweet aromatic flavor but few would care to make a meal of it. The fruit is too dry for hearty eating and the flavor too decided. The evergreen leaves are leathery in texture and their flavor is stronger than that of the berry; they are whitish underneath and dark, glossy green above. They are oval in shape and have a few small teeth or none at all. The flowers are white, waxy, and cup-shaped; they hang like bells from their short stems. The plant grows close to the ground, generally in the woods and moist places. It is found as far north as Maine and west to Michigan.
Do not mistake the bunchberry for the wintergreen. It, too, grows low on the ground, but the bunchberries are in close clusters at the top of the small plant where the leaves radiate. The berries are bright scarlet, round and smooth, and are not edible. Flower and leaf resemble those of the dogwood-tree, to which family the bunchberry belongs.