Vaccinium oxycoccos is a small, creeping plant with simple, alternate, evergreen leaves with entire, in-rolled margins and acute tips. The leaves are glabrous and strongly whitened beneath and are usually less than 3 mm wide and 8 mm long (most are considerably smaller). It is similar to Vaccinium macrocarpon which generally has thicker stems and larger leaves with more blunt tips. It is roughly similar to Gaultheria hispidula, which has broadly ovate leaves and coarse, appressed hairs on the stems and undersides of leaves (and sometimes on leaf margins too). The three species are compared in this photograph.

Vaccinium oxycoccos is usually found in bogs. It has roughly the same distribution in Wisconsin as that of Vaccinium macrocarpon, although V. macrocarpon has not yet been reported from Door County.