Empetraceæ — Crowberry Family
Low evergreen shrubs with narrow nearly sessile leaves jointed to short pulvini, channelled on the lower side by the revolute margins and small monœcious, diœcious or rarely polygamous flowers; sepals, petals, and stamens each 3, fruit a black, berry-like drupe.
Empetrum nigrum L. Black Crowberry.
Smooth or the young shoots hairy, usually much branched, the branches diffusely spreading, 2—10 inches long. Leaves crowded, dark green, linear-oblong, thick and obtuse, about ¼ of an inch long with strongly revolute, roughish margins. Flowers very small, purplish; stamens exserted; berry nearly ¼ of an inch in diameter, black.
Frequent throughout the Rockies in damp woods, especially those of the “Jack Pine” where it frequently forms a considerable part of the forest floor, in dense, close mats.