General: Low shrub, growing in dense colonies; stems up to 40 cm tall, rounded, hairy with very dense, velvety hairs, especially when young.
Leaves: Alternate, deciduous, thin, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, to 4 cm long, entire, green, softly hairy, tips pointed.
Flowers: Solitary, or few in terminal clusters, appearing when the leaves are half their mature size; flower stalks shorter than corolla; corollas greenish-white or tinged with pink, cylindric bell-shaped, up to 5 mm long; filaments hairy; anthers awnless.
Fruits: Berries, up to 10 mm wide, blue, with heavy pale blue bloom; edible and sweet.
Dry to mesic forests and clearings on sandy and rocky soils and hummocks in bogs in the montane zone; frequent in C and SE BC, infrequent in NE BC, rare in SW BC (lower mainland bogs); N to NT, E to NF, and S to MT, IA, and VA.
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, transcontinental North American deciduous shrub (rare in the Pacific region, sporadic in the eastern limits of the coastinterior ecotone). Occurs in continental boreal and cool temperate climates on nitrogen-poor soils; its occurrence increases with increasing continentality.
