Japan Flora: Dwarf evergreen subshrub, 5-20 cm. high, simple to sparingly branched, with long-crccping subterranean stems; leaves coriaceous, 1-2.5 cm. long, 5-13 mm. wide, obovate-elliptic to obovate, rounded to very obtuse, lustrous, deep green on upper side, paler with dark spots beneath, glabrous on both sides, slightly recurved on margin, the petioles 0.5-1.5 mm. long; flowers nodding, in short terminal racemes; corolla campanulate, 6-7 mm. long, 4- lobcd, white to reddish; berries globose, red, 4-7 mm. in diameter. June-July. Coniferous woods and alpine slopes;

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common northward, rare in Shikoku and Kyushu. Korea, Kuriles, Sakhalin to Europe, and N. America.