Vaccinium cordifolium (M.Martens & Galeotti) Hemsl.

Shrub, 1-2(-3) m, consisting of a few straggling branches or woody stems. Branchlets densely patently greyish or yellowish-brownish tomentose in the younger, glabrescent and grey-corticate in the older parts; young shoots red-tinged. Leaves crowded, dense and subimbricate at the tips of the branchlets, ovate, subsessile, apex bluntly attenuate, base deeply cordate, rather slightly or not amplexicaul, coriaceous, dark green and somewhat glossy above, paler and reddish green beneath at maturity, patently short-pubescent on both faces initially, early glabrescent except the basal part of the lamina and the midrib beneath, finally quite glabrous, 2.4-4.5 by 1.5-3(-4) cm, flat, entire, midrib rather flat above, prominent beneath, nerves 6-7(-8) pairs, the lowest 2-3 from the base, upper ones from the midrib, curved-ascending towards the edge, rather indistinctly anastomosing, slightly raised above, more conspicuously so beneath, reticulation dense, finely prominent especially beneath; petiole 2-3 by 1.5-2 mm, pubescent for a long time. Stipule-like perulae in the sterile upper axils subulate, 3-4 mm, subpersist-ent. Racemes from the uppermost axils or sub-terminal, solitary or rarely in pairs, laxly 5-10(-12)-flowered, flowers nodding to one side; rachis 2-5(-6) cm and pedicels (0.8-1.3 cm) rather slender, both densely white soft-pubescent; bracts ovate, foliaceous, up to 8 by 2 mm, very early caducous; bracteoles not seen. Calyx reddish or purplish, tube widely campanulate, tomentulose, 1-1.5 mm, limb erecto-patent, 5-lobed to nearly the base, lobes ovate-acuminate, with salient sub-parallel dorsal nerves, laxly pubescent and ciliate, c. 3 by 2 mm, no proper apical gland. Corolla oval in bud, tubular-urceolate when fully expanded, thin-fleshy, a delicate pink, varying to white, with creamy tips, glabrous at both sides, (10-)12—15 by 5-6 mm, lobes ovate, obtuse, reflexed, 1.5 mm. Stamens 10, subequal, not rarely incompletely developed (female flowers?); filaments linear-subulate, slightly dilated above the base, densely long hairy except the very base, 6-7 mm; cells oblong, c. 2 mm, with 2 very short dorsal spurs; tubules cylindric, much narrower than the cells, c. 1.5 mm, divergent, laxly set with short gland-tipped hairs, the pore nearly round, ± flaring. Disk densely clothed with longish erect hairs. Style red, columnar, densely subappressedly hairy in the lower 2/3, 1-1.1 cm. Fruit a globose berry, 6-8 mm ø, white or greenish red, crowned by the slightly accrescent calyx lobes.

In dwarf scrub forest or open ridge jungle, (1525-)2400-2900 m, on granite and serpentine, common. Fl. Jan.-Dec.