| Author | L. | |
| Distribution | Throughout the state, though scarce (or not well-collected) in the far northeastern counties.
This is a widespread Eastern species, ranging from eastern Canada south to nearly all of FL and to eastern TX. | |
| Abundance | Common and widespread across the state, except rare to uncommon in the northeastern portion. | |
| Habitat | This species occurs in a great array of forested habitats. It is most common in mixed hardwood-conifer forests, but also is found in bottomland forests, rich slopes of hardwood forests, in some pine forests, and close to wooded stream banks.
See also Habitat Account for General Forests | |
| Phenology | Blooms from May to June, and fruits from June to July. Some fruits can remain red into the winter if not eaten by animals. | |
| Identification | This is a very familiar and completely unmistakable plant. It has a creeping stem and evergreen leaves, on a stem to about 8 inches long, rooting at nodes. The small rounded leaves, about the size of a fingernail, are opposite, leathery, and dark green. The flowers are twinned, in pairs with a single united ovary. Each flower is tubular, white, about 1/2-inch long, with 4 flared lobes that are fuzzy on the inside. A single red berry forms soon after flowering at each pair of flowers. This is a species that can practically be seen on any woodland walk in most of the state. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S5 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACU link |
| USACE-emp | FACU link |
