Leafy stems suberect from a horizontal rhizome, 1-2 dm, with a few lvs crowded near the top; petioles 2-5 mm; blades elliptic or oblong to rarely subrotund, 2-5 cm, entire or crenulate, glabrous; fls 5-merous, on nodding pedicels 5-10 mm; cal saucer-shaped; cor barrel-shaped, 7-10 mm, the rounded lobes 1 mm; fr bright red, 7-10 mm; 2n=44, 88. Dry or moist woods in acid soil; Nf. to Man., s. to Va., Ky., n. Ind., Minn., and in the mts. to Ga. and Ala. July, Aug.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
Rare to frequent in some of the northern counties. Southward it has been found in only a few places in a few counties as relicts on sandstone outcrops. Its preferred habitat in Indiana is rather moist and very sandy black oak flats. It is also found on dry, sandy black and white oak slopes. The usual form of the leaf is obovate to oval but plants with nearly orbicular and narrow-elliptic leaves are found. The extremes in leaf form have been given botanical names but I do not consider our plants as coming within the range of the named forms.