2. Gaultheria Linnaeus (1753: 395) .

Type:— Gaultheria procumbens Linnaeus (1753: 395)

Subshrubs erectly branched. Leaves alternate, spiraled, usually not overlapping, papery to coriaceous, flat; petiole robust; blade margin serrate; venation brochidodromous; apex without gland. Pseudoracemes leafy apically, sometimes solitary axillary flowers. Flowers 5-merous; calyx lobes connate at base, becoming fleshy and accrescent, lobes long or short; corolla gamopetalous, campanulate to urceolate; stamens 8–10; filaments erect, papillose; anthers 2-aristate, dorsifix, dehiscence poricidal; ovary superior, 4-5-locular, multiovulate. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, frequently globose, commonly involved by the calyx; seeds ovoid or angulate, laterally long.

The genus Gaultheria in Rio Grande do Sul comprises two species distributed in the highland grasslands of the Campos de Cima da Serra (Figs. 16 C, D), mainly in peat bogs, riverside grasslands, among rock outcrops, close to cloud forest edges, in herbaceous and/or shrubby vegetation and associated with hillsides near the border with Santa Catarina state (Figs. 12 A–B; 14 A) .