General:
Perennial herb from a thick, short rhizome covered with fibrous roots; stems erect, 40-120 cm tall, branched, sometimes bent at nodes (zigzag), smooth throughout or coarse-hairy on the lower third.

Leaves:
Stem leaves several, egg-shaped to broadly lanceolate, 5-15 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, unstalked, tapering to a clasping base, glaucous beneath, the margins entire or minutely toothed; basal leaves lacking.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of 1 or sometimes 2, stalked flowers drooping from leaf axils, the stalks 2-5 cm long, jointed and abruptly bent or kinked, smooth; flowers greenish-white to yellowish-green, bell-shaped, of 6 similar, distinct tepals, the tepals 8-14 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, concavely tapering to long, pointed, spreading or bent-back tips; stamens 6; pistil 1, 3-chambered.

Fruits:
Berries, egg-shaped to cylindric-ellipsoid, yellow to red, often becoming dark purple, 10-18 mm long; seeds several to many.

Notes:
Two varieties occur in BC:

1. Stems coarsely hairy below the first branches; leaves with tiny, irregularly spaced teeth; plants mostly from west of the Coast-Cascade Mountains................... var. amplexifolius

1. Stems smooth; leaf margins entire; plants mostly from east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains................... var. chalazatus Fassett

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia