They have five sepals, five fused petals with five small projecting lobes, ten stamens and a single carpel.

The fruits are spherical, 9 to 12 mm (0.35 to 0.47 in) long, initially green, then red and finally glossy black and succulent when ripe.

It is found at high latitudes, from Scotland east across Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, Northern Canada and Greenland.

Its southern limits in Europe are the Pyrenees and the Alps, in Asia, the Altay Mountains and Mongolia, and in North America, British Columbia in the west, and Maine and New Hampshire in the east.

[4] Its natural habitat is moorland, dry forests with birch and pine and hummocks covered in moss at the edges of bogs.