Empetrum eamesii
Empetrum eamesii, common name purple crowberry, is a North American species of dwarf evergreen shrub.
Description
The species forms a low-lying shrub with prostrate stems, forming a mat on the ground. Leaves are alternate or in whorls. Flowers are solitary near the tips of branches, each with 3 white petals. Fruits are spherical, pink or red in subsp. earnsii, purple to reddish-purple in subsp. ''atropurpureum.''
Taxonomy
All the United States and some of the Canadian material belongs to E. ''eamesii subsp. atropurpureum'' D.Löve, which has been regarded as a separate species by some authorities but not others.
It is native to eastern Canada and the northeastern US. It has been reported from sand dunes, rocky outcrops, and alpine heath in Québec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York State, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Minnesota, Newfoundland & Labrador and St. Pierre & Miquelon.