Pipsissewa (Wintergreen): A Forager's Childhood Memory and Herbal Legacy

In the southeast Kentucky mountains of my youth, a tiny, scarce plant grew on dry cliff edges in summer. I wasn't supposed to taste any plant without Aunt Bett's supervision, but I was a persistent sneak—and wintergreen was my weakness.

Aunt Bett called it wintergreen; its common name is the Native American pipsissewa, Latin Chimaphila umbellata. A small evergreen perennial to 8 inches, with shiny, toothed, whorled leaves and July–August white-to-pink flowers clustered atop an erect stalk. Bruised leaves release a sweet-bitter flavor—the true taste of wintergreen gum and candy, never fully replicated.

Native Americans used it medicinally, so Aunt Bett and I gathered it. She dismissed the claim that it dissolved kidney stones but valued it for other uses: leaf infusions applied externally for blisters; whole plant pulverized in wet dressings for leg/foot swelling; tea for backache and as a diuretic; even drops for sore eyes. Until the early 20th century, pipsissewa tonic was a rural household staple; today its extract flavors root beer and candies.

We dried leaves on stacked screens atop ladderback chairs on the covered porch for air circulation. I still snuck leaves—even dry, they held that flavor. Aunt Bett always knew: "Chile, you been sneakin' them leaves again, ain'tcha?"

I've never found it in western Kentucky, so I stock up on root beer instead. We make do with what's available.

Thanks to Toxicondron and willmetge for PlantFiles photos.