Habitat and Range.—Hillsides, open woods and copses, borders of streams and swamps.
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick along the valley of the St. Lawrence river to the western shores of Lake Superior.
Common throughout New England.
South to Georgia and Alabama; west to Minnesota.
Habit.—A shrub or small tree, 6-20 feet high, trunk diameter 3-6 inches; head usually widest near the top, flat; branches nearly horizontal with lateral spray, the lively green, dense foliage lying in broad planes.
Bark.—Trunk and larger branches greenish, warty, streaked with gray; season's shoots bright yellowish-green or purplish, oblong-dotted.
Winter Buds and Leaves.—Buds small, acute. Leaves simple, alternate or sometimes opposite, clustered at the ends of the branchlets, 2-4 inches long, dark green on the upper side, paler beneath, with minute appressed pubescence on both sides, ovate to oval, almost entire; apex long-pointed; base acutish or rounded; veins indented above, ribs curving upward and parallel; petiole long, slender, and grooved.
Inflorescence.—June. From shoots of the season, in irregular open cymes; calyx coherent with ovary, surmounting it by 4 minute teeth; corolla white or pale yellow, with the 4 oblong petals at length reflexed: stamens 4, exserted; style short, with capitate stigma.
Fruit.—October. Globular, blue or blue black, on slender, reddish stems.