Salal

Gaulthera shallon - Salal is well-known to most residents of the Pacific Northwest. It can be barely 6 inches tall to a robust bush of 5 feet or more. It attains its most luxuriant growth along the forest borders and brushfields of the Pacific Coast where the wind often prunes it into a thick impenetrable hedge. The Indians used the salal berries in a variety of ways. Usually they were mashed so that they could be dried into small cakes. Early settlers learned to make syrup and pies from the salal berry. It also makes an excellent jam or jelly. A number of these ring our southern forest fringe.