A water-loving shrub, growing from 6 to 12 feet high.
Flowers yellowish white, small, disposed in large terminal, depressed and woolly cymes or corymbs.
Berries globose, bright blue, stone compressed. It is found in moist woods and on the margins of rivers, flowering in June and July. The active properties are similar to those found in Peruvian Bark, except that there is more gum mucilage and extractive matter and less resin quinine and tannin. It is tonic astringent and slightly stimulant, used in periodical and typhoid fever. Taken internally it increases the strength and frequency of the pulse, elevating the temperature of the body.