Stems usually covered with slender, straight bristles or prickles.
Flowers pink or rose-colored with numerous stamens, borne singly on lateral branches.
Circumpolar in boreal forest. Alaska to Quebec and New England, south to British Columbia, New Mexico, the Dakotas, and the Lake States of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Less frequent in closed black spruce forest. Moderately shade tolerant. On Black Spruce sites, may appear as sprouts on the freshly disturbed or burned site.