General: Prostrate shrub with somewhat stoloniferous rooting stems, sometimes forming mats several meters wide; bark reddish to brownish, peeling off; stems ascending at the tip, 5-15 cm tall, minutely hairy, sometimes glandular.
Leaves: Alternate, evergreen, leathery, egg- to spoon-shaped, 1-3 cm long, 0.3-1.2 cm wide, rounded at tip, rarely pointed, narrowed basally, entire, glabrous to minutely hairy especially on the margins and midrib, dark green above, paler below; stalks 2-5 mm long.
Flowers: Several in few-flowered terminal clusters; flower stalks 2-5 mm long, straight or curved, borne in the axils of hairy bracts; corollas pinkish-white, urn-shaped, 4-6 mm long, 5-lobed; calyces 1-1.5 mm long.
Fruits: Berries, bright red, 5-10 mm wide.
Notes: In 1974, Packer and Denford reviewed the classification of infraspecific taxa, found it to be inadequate, and proposed that four subspecies and two varieties be recognized. Two of the subspecies were new taxa, not previously described. The taxa were based on the type of hairiness found on the young branches and stalks, chromosome numbers, and phenolics. All four subspecies occur in BC, but are not geographically distinct. We have, therefore, decided not to recognize these taxa until further work is done on the taxonomy and distribution of these entities in BC.
Dry forests and exposed, often rocky, sites in the lowland to lower alpine zones; common throughout BC; circumboreal, N to AK, E to NF and S to N CA, NM, MN, and VA; Eurasia.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shade-tolerant/intolerant, submontane to subalpine, circumpolar evergreen shrub (transcontinental in North America). Occurs on very dry to moderately dry, nitrogen poor soils (Mor humus forms) within boreal, temperate, and cool mesothermal climates; its occurrence increases with increasing continentality. Common in open-canopy, youngseral lodgepole pine forests on shallow soils, soils on rock outcrops and strongly drained coarse-skeletal soils on watershedding sites. Often associated with Gaultheria shallon, Pleurozium schreberi, and lichens. Characteristic of moisture-deficient sites.
