Plants 0.5-1.5 m. Stems erect to spreading, glabrous or pubescent, glabrescent; spines at nodes absent or 1-3, 5-15 mm; prickles on internodes absent or sparse. Leaves: petiole 1-3 cm, pilose and stipitate-glandular; blade pentangular, 3-5-lobed, cleft (1/3-)1/2-3/4 to midrib, 1.7-5 cm, base truncate to cordate, surfaces glabrate or pubescent abaxially, pilose and sometimes with stipitate-glandular hairs adaxially, lobes deltate or cuneate-deltate, margins with rounded teeth, apex rounded or broadly acute. Inflorescences spreading, solitary flowers or 2(-4)-flowered corymbs, 4-5 cm, axis pilose and stipitate-glandular. Pedicels not jointed (sometimes with abcission layer at bract junction), 5-16 mm, glabrous or pilose and stipitate-glandular; bracts lanceolate to ovate, 1.5-2.5 mm, hairy and glandular on margins. Flowers: hypanthium greenish white, campanulate, 1.8-4 mm, glabrous or scattered-hairy; sepals not overlapping, erect to recurved, greenish, oblong, 1.5-4 mm; petals widely separated, erect, white, obovate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1-2.5 mm; nectary disc not prominent; stamens as long as or slightly longer than petals; filaments linear, 1-2 mm, glabrous; anthers greenish yellow, oval, 0.4-0.6 mm, apex rounded; ovary setose with eglandular or gland-tipped bristles, sometimes sparsely villous; styles connate to middle or 0.8 mm proximal to stigmas, 4.5-7 mm, villous on proximal 1/2 or glabrous. Berries palatable, greenish to pale red, globose, 7-15 mm, densely bristly or spiny. 2n = 16. Flowering May-Jun. Rich hardwoods and conifer-hardwoods, rocky slopes, boulderfields, heath balds; 100-2100 m; N.B., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.Dak., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.