Plants 0.3-1 m. Stems straggling, ascending, or prostrate, glabrous or sparsely crisped-puberulent with scattered short-stipitate glands; spines at nodes absent; prickles on internodes absent. Leaves: petiole 3-6 cm, puberulent with stalked glands; blade pentagonal with nearly parallel sides, 3-5-lobed, cleft less than 1/2 to midrib, 2 middle sinuses deepest, to 8.5 cm, base broadly truncate to shallowly cordate, surfaces not glandular, ± hairy abaxially, glabrous adaxially, lateral lobes (directed forward), broadly triangular to ovate-triangular, margins coarsely bicrenate-dentate, apex acute. Inflorescences pendent, 6-13-flowered racemes, 3-5 cm, axis glabrous or sparsely pubescent, glands short-stipitate, flowers evenly spaced. Pedicels jointed, 1-4 mm, short stipitate-glandular; bracts ovate-orbiculate to oblong, 1.5-2 mm, stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium dark reddish purple or greenish white and strongly purplish-maculate or tinged, saucer-shaped, to 1 mm, glabrous; sepals with adjacent lobes overlapping, spreading, greenish purple, cuneate-rhombic, 2 mm; petals widely separated, erect, reddish purple, spatulate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1 mm; nectary disc prominent, reddish purple, 5-lobed, covering top of ovary; stamens nearly as long as petals; filaments linear, 0.2-0.5 mm, glabrous; anthers white, transversely oblong-cordate, 0.2-0.3 mm, apex shallowly notched (anther sacs almost adjacent); ovary glabrous; styles connate 1/3-3/4 their lengths, 1-1.2 mm, glabrous. Berries sour-tasting, red, ovoid, 6-10 mm, glabrous. Flowering May-Jul. Bogs, wet coniferous woods, coniferous hardwoods, stream banks, seepage areas, montane rock slides; 0-1200 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Conn., Idaho, Ill., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Vt., Wash., W.Va., Wis.; Asia.