Creeping snowberry, cancer wintergreen

Vaccinium hispidulum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 352. 1753; Chiogenes hispidula (Linnaeus) Torrey & A. Gray

Subshrubs (vinelike), creeping, mat-forming, stoloniferous; roots adventitious or fibrous. Stems repent, 10-14 cm, densely strigose. Leaf blades elliptic to oval, 0.3-1 cm, base cuneate to rounded, margins ciliate, (slightly revolute), apex acute, abaxial surface strigose, adaxial glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, solitary flowers; bracts light green, broadly lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm, exceeding sepals, sparsely strigose. Pedicels light green, 1.5-3 mm, strigose; bracteoles absent. Flowers: sepals 4, connate ca. 1/2 their lengths, white, ovate, 1-1.5 mm, hairy basally (hairs dark red); petals 4, connate 1/3 their lengths, white, 2-3.5 mm, glabrous, corolla campanulate, lobes 1.5-2 mm; filaments broadest in middle and narrowing distally and proximally, glabrous; anthers with 2 bifurcating awns, dehiscent by subterminal pores. Fruits white, 2.5-6 mm wide. 2n = 22.

Flowering Jun-early Aug; fruiting Jul-Sep. Sphagnum bogs, fens and mossy, coniferous woodland forests and swamps, often on moss-covered or rotting logs; 30-1400 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Conn., Idaho, Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., R.I., Vt., Wash., W.Va., Wis.