Shrub to 4 m; young stems smooth or brown-scurfy; petioles 5-15 mm; lvs ovate to lanceolate, oblong, or oblanceolate, to 12 cm, narrowly revolute or narrowly cartilaginous- thickened, the lower side with scattered minute appressed red-brown scales, or glabrous; fr ovoid to subglobose, 6-12 mm, blue-black, glaucous; stone flattened, the sides not grooved; 2n=18. Mostly in wet woods and swamps; Nf. to Man., s. to Fla. and Tex. May-July. Two geographic vars., often treated as distinct spp., but apparently overlapping in all characters.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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