Talk:Wintergreen

Subject of article

I'm unclear what this article is about. Is it:

• American wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens). If so, why is this material not in Gaultheria procumbens?
• Plants of the genus Gaultheria generally? If so, why is this material not in Gaultheria?
• Plants producing methyl salicylate, whether related or not? If so, why is this material not in Methyl salicylate?
• Plants called "wintergreen" in English, whether related or not? If so, why is this not simply a disambiguation page listing their articles?
• Plants which are green in winter? If so, why is this material not in evergreen?

The lead para is rather confused, which does not help answer these questions. It begins "Wintergreen is a group of plants", but does not define that group. It then talks about evergreen, about Gaultheria and about other things called "wintergreen", then (only in the body of the article) oil of wintergreen is also covered. Is there anything in this article which could not be covered better elsewhere? If so, what is it, and what should the article be called? WP articles are supposed to be about one thing or class of things. Richard New Forest (talk) 14:23, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

you're right this article is a bit confused. judging from the "see also" section, it is about Eastern Teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) and the oils it produces. However, it also notes that wintergreen generally refers to the genus Gaultheria (this is incorrect according to the Gaultheria page). The first few paragraphs seem like a disambig page; I am going to move them to the wintergreen disambig page. the placing of this page is a little awkward given that there are already articles about Eastern Teaberry and genus Gaultheria. In the future I think it should be merged with Gaultheria procumbens. Cwinstanley (talk) 21:01, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

I completely agree.70.198.49.81 (talk) 16:38, 15 September 2011 (UTC)