Plants extensively mat-forming (often by layering), with erect branches from lateral buds, rooting and/or swelling into woody burls at nodes; twigs of current year reddish green, terete, finely hairy, not verrucose. Leaf blades dark green, elliptic to obovate, (10-)12-15(-39) × (4-)5-7(-24) mm, coriaceous, margins ± entire, surfaces glabrescent. Pedicels 0.1-0.3 cm. Flowers: calyx lobes distinct; corolla usually white, 3-5 mm; filaments ciliate. Berries black, 6-8 mm diam., insipid. 2n = 24. Flowering late spring. Coastal plain, open pine flatwoods, pine barrens, pocosin ecotones and associated disturbed areas, road cuts, fire trails, mown roadsides; 0-200 m; Ga., N.C., S.C., Va.