Japan Flora: Small, erect, deep green sparingly branched evergreen shrub, with creeping subterranean stems; leaves coriaceous, lustrous, pale green beneath, oblong to obovate-oblong, obtuse, subacute at the base, toothed, loosely puberulcnt on the midrib on upper side, the veinlets reticulate, impressed on upper side, slightly raised beneath; inflorescence 2-6 cm. long, few-flowered, puberulent, the pedicels recurved, 5-7 mm. long, the bracts broadly ovate, obtuse, the bracteoles broadly lanceolate; calyx-lobes deltoid, obtuse, accrescent after anthesis, becoming white and fleshy when mature, glabrous; corolla globose, white, about 6 mm. across; styles about 3 mm. long; fruit globose, about 6 mm. across. June-July. Coniferous woods and snbalpine thickets;

Hokkaido, Honshu (centr. and n. distr. and Mount Daisen in Hoki Prov.). Sakhalin, Kuriles, and Aleutians.