Vaccinium vitis-idaea

Vaccinium vitis-idaea, commonly called the lingonberry as well as partridgeberry, foxberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry among more than two dozen English names, is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra across the Northern Hemisphere in both Eurasia and North America, spreading by underground stems to form dense clonal colonies 10 to 40 centimeters tall, with alternate oval leaves 5 to 30 millimeters long. The plant bears bell-shaped white to pale pink flowers followed by red berries about 6 to 10 millimeters across that ripen from late summer into autumn, are edible with an acidic taste that sweetens if left on the branch through winter, and are commercially cultivated in the United States and the Netherlands. It is classed as Least Concern by the IUCN and considered secure by NatureServe.