Branched shrub or shrub 80-100 cm high; branches are gray, smooth, curved; leaves are obovate, light green, glaucous below; flowers 1-3, spherical within annular, pink; the fruit is a juicy, sweet, multi-seeded, oval, bluish-black berry with a bluish bloom. Blooms in July-August.
Grows in swampy forests, peat bogs, almost always together with wild rosemary.
Leaves contain arbutin and flavonoids, berries contain organic acids, sugar, tannins.
An aqueous decoction of branches with leaves is drunk for heart diseases, berries are used for dysentery, a decoction of the leaves is used as a mild laxative. The plant has long been valued as an antiscorbutic and antidysenteric agent.
Application
Decoction: 2 tbsp. spoons of leaves in a glass of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes, leave for 1 hour. Take 1 tbsp. spoon 4-6 times every day.
Infusion of berries: 1 tbsp. a spoonful of dry berries in a glass of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes, take 1 tbsp. spoon every 2 hours for constipation, diabetes, especially in the treatment of giardiasis angiocholecystitis.