Empetrum hermaphroditum

Empetrum hermaphroditum (Hermaphroditum Crowdberry) grows in light forests, in peat bogs, in the tundra, usually in large numbers. Found in the north of the European part of Russia and Siberia; outside Russia - in Scandinavia, England (rarely), in Iceland, on Svalbard.

 

Evergreen shrub with short, strongly branched, flattened, densely spaced stems; young twigs are covered with pinpoint sessile or papillary glands of amber color; biennial and three-year branches of terracotta, brick color, one-year - from greenish to terracotta. The leaves are usually densely arranged, mostly perpendicular or obliquely upwards directed towards the branches, narrowly elliptic. The flowers are bisexual, at the base they are densely dressed with four scaly petiolate bracts. Sepals are spoon-shaped, 1.3-1.6 mm long, 1.2-1.5 mm wide. Petals without pronounced marigold, pink, up to 2.7 mm long, up to 1.5 mm wide; 3 stamens (less often up to 6). The anthers are short, often unilocular. Filaments are about 2 times as long as petals. The style is short, stigma with nine toothed lobes. The fruit is black, berry-shaped, with six to nine drupes.

 

Hermaphroditic crowberry reproduces well by seeds. Its seedlings and undergrowth are often found in areas devoid of moss cover, or where it is oppressed.