Shrubs, to 5 m, flowering at 1.5 m; rhizomes absent. Stems clustered, branches occasionally arching to ground and rooting at nodes; bark green-tan or maroon-tan, not corky, appearing braided, splitting longitudinally; branchlets green abaxially, maroon to green adaxially, turning red-maroon in fall, densely erect-hairy when young; lenticels not protruding on 2d year branches, area surrounding them not suffused with purple on older branches; pith tan or brown. Leaves: petiole 8–25 mm; blade broadly ovate, 8–15 × 4–9 cm, base rounded or truncate, apex abruptly acuminate, abaxial surface yellow-green, hairs brown, tan, or white, both appressed and rigid and others erect and curling on same leaf, tufts of hairs absent in axils of secondary veins, midvein and secondary veins densely tomentose, adaxial surface light to dark green, hairs appressed; secondary veins (4–)5–6 per side, most arising from proximal 1/2, tertiary veins perpendicular to secondary veins, ladderlike. Inflorescences flat-topped or convex, 2–8 cm diam., peduncle 15–80 mm; branches and pedicels green or greenish yellow, turning maroon in fruit. Flowers: hypanthium densely appressed-hairy, especially at base; sepals 1.3–2 mm; petals cream, 3–5 mm. Drupes blue, portion in direct sunlight bleached white, globose, 5–9 mm diam.; stone globose, 4–6 mm diam., irregularly longitudinally ridged, apex pointed. 2n = 22.
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Solitary shrub 1–3(–5) m; young twigs loosely pubescent, later ± glabrate and becoming maroon, the pith dark brown; old bark fissuring; infl a flat to somewhat rounded cyme; sep 1–2 mm; distal 1 mm of style abruptly thickened to twice the diameter below; fr blue, 6–9 mm; stone strongly ridged; 2n=22. Moist or wet woods and along streams; Me. and Que. to Minn., s. to Ga., Ark., and Okla. May–July. Two well marked geographic vars.
A compact deciduous shrub. It grows about 3 m high. The leaves are dark green. They turn red in autumn. The flowers are white. The fruit are purplish-black.
Alluvial woods, river and stream banks, wet meadows, marshes, ditches; at elevations up to 1,500 metres.
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Temperate. It suits hardiness zones 5-8.
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