Small black blueberry

Cyanococcus tenellus (Aiton) Small

Plants forming extensive, open colonies, 1-7.5 dm; twigs yellowish green, ± terete, hairy. Leaves deciduous, rarely persistent; blade green, spatulate to elliptic, 13-40 × 3-17 mm, subcoriaceous, margins sharply to obscurely serrate, surfaces glandular abaxially, hairy especially when young, rarely glabrous. Flowers: calyx pale green, sometimes hairy; corolla usually white tinged with pink, cylindric, 5-9 mm; filaments ± hairy. Berries black, 6-8 mm diam., sometimes puberulent. Seeds 5-25, ca. 1 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering winter-spring. Dry sand hills, pine barrens, scrubby oak woods, open pine parkland, and flatwoods subject to burning; 0-200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., Miss., N.C., S.C., Va.