Partridgeberry

Mitchella repens, commonly partridge berry or squaw vine, is the best known plant in the genus Mitchella. It is a creeping, prostrate, herbaceous woody shrub of North America in the madder family, Rubiaceae. It is an evergreen non-climbing vine, no taller than 6 cm, with creeping stems 15 to 30 cm long and dark green, shiny leaves. The small trumpet-shaped flowers are produced in pairs, each with four white petals. In Ojibwe it is known as binemiin. It is distributed throughout eastern North America, from south-eastern Canada south to Florida and Texas, and to Guatemala. It is cultivated for its ornamental red berries and shiny foliage. The scarlet berries are edible but rather tasteless, with a faint flavour of wintergreen. Indigenous American women made a tisane from the leaves and berries that was consumed during childbirth, and the Menominees used the leaves for a drink to cure insomnia.