Low growing shrub with pinkish-red, urn shaped flowers, hanging singly or in pairs from leaf axils. Flowers measured to 7 mm long. Leaves shiny, light green in colour, serrate, ovate to obovate. Typical leaf measured at 25 mm long and 10 mm wide.
Blue, edible berry late summer.
The stems are described as puberulent (minutely pubescent) in Budd's Flora, and as glabrous to obscurely (!) puberulent in Flora of Alberta. In the field, most stems appeared glabrous to me when viewed using a loupe, and I had to search to find a stem with what appeared to be few hairs on the stem (arrows pointing to the hairs I could see with my loupe). However, now that I have zoomed in on the photo on my computer, the stem does appear to be puberulent.
Height listed in Budd's Flora from 5 to 30 cm, we measured plants from 5 to 21 cm tall.
To distinguish this species of Vaccinium, the Taxonomic Reminder for Recognizing Saskatchewan Plants lists "leaves obovate, toothed, berry blue".
Habitat is pine woods in the boreal forest and open slopes
in the Cypress Hills. Although listed as fairly common in Checklist
of the Vascular Plants of Saskatchewan, I've only managed
to find it in a couple locations in the Cypress Hills.
The above photos were taken June 3rd, on the bottom of a stoney,
hillside meadow, Cypress Hills, about 400 km southwest of our
home in Regina, Saskatchewan.