Plants forming dense colonies, 0.3-6 dm, superficially rhizom-atous; twigs yellow-green, reddish green, or reddish brown, terete to somewhat angled, finely puberulent or, rarely, glabrous. Leaf blades green, usually oblanceolate, sometimes obovate or narrowly elliptic, 10-30 × 3-12 mm, margins usually serrulate from apex to at least mid blade, surfaces usually glandular abaxially, usually glabrous adaxially. Flowers: calyx pale green, lobes vestigial, glabrous; corolla white, white with pink striping, or pink, cylindric-urceolate to globose, 4-7 × 3-5 mm, thin, glaucous; filaments glabrous. Berries usually blue, glaucous, rarely dull black, 5-9 mm diam. Seeds ca. 1 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering late spring-mid summer. Open, usually dry habitats, from lowland to subalpine areas; 0-4500 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Calif., Colo., Idaho, Maine, Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.Mex., N.Y., Oreg., Vt., Wash., Wis., Wyo.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, Hidalgo); Central America (Guatemala).