Plants crown-forming (some-times suckering or rhizomatous when injured); twigs of current season ± terete, smooth, hairy in lines. Leaf blades green, elliptic or ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 40-70 × 15-30 mm, mem-branous, margins serrulate, abaxial surface glandular-hairy. Inflorescence bracts caducous, 2, basal. Pedicels nodding, to 1.5 cm, glabrous. Flowers: calyx lobes to 1 mm, glabrous; corolla deeply reflexed, white, pink, or rarely red; filaments pilose. Berries red, deep purple, or black, 6-15 mm diam., glabrous. 2n = 24.

Flowering late spring-mid summer. Wooded slopes, subalpine shrub lands, boggy areas, rocky slopes and thickets; 600-2000 m; Ga., N.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.