Wintergreen grows in pine and hardwood forests and oak-heath woods from Newfoundland to southeastern Manitoba and south to Alabama. It prefers acidic soils, spreads by long rhizomes lying in the top 2 to 3 cm of soil, and is a calcifuge plant. White-tailed deer, grouse, wild turkey, black bears, foxes and rodents eat the leaves or berries, and the eastern chipmunk is noted as a favourite consumer.
The epithet procumbens refers to its low, spreading habit. The genus honours Jean-François Gaultier, and the plant has long been used to flavour tea, candy and chewing gum; teaberry ice cream is still a regional flavour in Pennsylvania. The Greenbelt Indigenous Botanical Survey records that Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples have used the leaves in food and as a beverage for centuries.