Salal has been an important plant to humans since long before European settlers come to this land. It has been used as medicine and food for thousands of years. And I’ve only had it in my garden only since April 2020, with three plants added to my new native plant garden.

Locals take salal for granted because it is everywhere in woods and woodland edges. It is easy to miss the solid evergreen leaves, the graceful white bellflowers, and the nutritious dark berries that follow.

An impressive trait of salal is that it seems to get new growth in summer and looks pretty clean and fresh going into autumn. My future plans for my plants are to water them a bit next summer so they get fully established and to watch for berries to pick and spread aoround the native plant garden, hoping some new babies will spring up on their own. I’ve been grabbing berries off neighborhood plants, as well, to see if the seeds will come up on their own when thrown around the garden.