Color, white. Flowers, many, making large, compound, terminal cymes, peduncled, slightly fragrant. Leaves, thick, oval or oblong, mostly entire, 4 to 9 inches long, narrowing at base into a short petiole, pointed at apex, scurfy on the upper surface. Fruit, pink at first, then blue black, with a bloom. June and July.

A shrub from 3 to 12 feet high, with grayish branches, found in swamps or moist woods, or along the banks of streams, from Maine to North Carolina and westward.