Distribution
United States of America

Native to: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Masachusettes, Michigan, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia.
Introduced into: Belgium, Germany, Great Britain.

Shrubs erect, 0.3-1.5 m. Twigs terete, viscid, glabrous or puberulent. Leaves usually in whorls of 3, rarely alternate or opposite; petiole 6-16 mm, usually puberulent; blade oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, 1.5-8 × 0.5-2.5 cm, margins usually plane, apex obtuse to acute, usually apiculate, abaxial surface glabrous or puberulent, sometimes stipitate-glandular, adaxial lightly puberulent (hairs white, to 0.1 mm), sometimes glabrescent, midrib puberulent. Inflorescences axillary near distal end, corymbiform racemes, 4-12-flowered. Pedicels 5-20 mm. Flowers: sepals usually green, sometimes reddish apically or throughout, ovate, 2-2.8 mm, apex usually acuminate, surfaces puberulent; petals connate nearly their entire lengths, usually reddish purple to pink, rarely white or bluish pink, usually deeper colored near anther pockets and with ring of red to purple spots just proximal to pockets, 7.5-9.5 × 6-13 mm, abaxial surface puberulent, adaxial glabrous, puberulent toward base; filaments 2.5-3.5 mm; style 3.5-4.5 mm. Capsules 5-locular, 2-3.5 × 3-5 mm, puberulent, stipitate-glandular. Seeds winged, obovoid, 0.6-1 mm. 2n = 24.

Habitat: dry-mesic to wet-mesic forests and woodlands on acidic soils, bogs, lake shores, high-elevation slopes and ridges on folist soils.