This section is from the book "Wild Flowers Of The North American Mountains", by Julia W. Henshaw. Also available from Amazon: Wild Flowers of the North American Mountains.
Much branched, the branches spreading, densely leafy. Leaves: linear-oblong, crowded, thick, obtuse, the strongly revolute margins roughish. Flowers: very small, purplish, solitary in the upper axils; sepals and petals mostly three. Fruit: a black drupe, containing six to nine nutlets.
This black-berried herbaceous shrub resembles a Heath, and grows in large dense mats on the mountain sides at high altitudes. The numerous short branches are thickly covered with tiny narrow leaves; the purplish flowers are inconspicuous, and the berries, which are large, round, and of a dull black colour, are a favourite fruit with the alpine birds.
 
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