[Thibaudia virgata Ruiz & Pavón apud Steudel, Nomencl. Bot. II(2): 739.  1841, nom. nud.]

Metagonia prostrata Nuttall, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. N.S. 8: 265.  1843.  Type.  Ecuador: between Cuenca and Loja, Jameson s.n. (holotype unknown).  Smith (1933: 225-6) did not actually see the type of this species when he placed it in the synonymy of Disterigma empetrifolium (Kunth) Drude.  The protologue states that the general color of the whole plant when growing is purple, that the berry is pyriform, and that the leaf serrulations are distant and shallow;  these facts, along with the stated distribution, lead me to conclude that this plant belongs in Vaccinium crenatum.

Vaccinium ottonis Klotzsch, Linnaea 24: 61.  1851.  [? Vaccinium floribundum Kunth var. ? splendens Wedd., nom. illeg.]  Type.  Venezuela.  D.F.:  Silla de Caracas (?), Otto 639 (holotype, B†?).

Vaccinium reflexum Hooker f., Bot. Mag. 95, t. 5781.  1869, non Klotzsch (1851).  Vaccinium reclinatum Niedenzu, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 11: 224.  1889, nom. illeg.  Type.  Ecuador: hills nr Cuenca and Loja, Jameson 83 (holotype, K-Herb. Hook., photo NY neg. 13016).

Vaccinium escallonioides Drake, J. Bot. III: 76.  1889.  Type.  Ecuador:  Chonta Cruz, 7 Nov 1881 (fl), Poortmann 94 (holotype, P).

Vaccinium retifolium S. F. Blake, J. Washington Acad. Sci. 14: 290.  1924.  Type.  Ecuador: vicinity of Portovelo, 6-15 Oct 1918 (fl), Rose & Rose 23387 (holotype, US).

    Prostrate to trailing shrub with decumbent or pendulous branches, rarely erect to 1 m tall, on banks, open slopes, and bare eroding areas, often rooting along stem;  stem terete to subterete, smooth to striate, puberulent, glabrate;  twigs subterete, striate, densely short-pilose.  Leaves coriaceous, elliptic-lanceolate, 6-15(-19) x 2.5-6(-10) mm, base broadly cuneate to attentuate and decurrent onto petiole, apex bluntly acute, margin conspicuously and irregularly crenate with each tooth tipped with a tiny, deciduous gland, glabrous except puberulent along midrib on both surfaces, reddish when young, deep green when mature, often drying reddish or brownish beneath;  pinnately nerved with 3-4 lateral nerves per side, all nerves conspicuously raised on both surfaces, often reddish beneath;  petiole subterete, flattened above, 1-2 mm long, densely short-pilose.  Inflorescence axillary, racemose, 1-3-flowered;  rachis subterete, angled, nitid, 2-4(-11) mm long, glabrous, reddish;  floral bract persistent, seemingly continuous not articulate, ovate, acuminate, 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous or ciliate towards base, margin appearing thin-glandular;  pedicel subterete, angled, nitid, 3.5-4 mm long, glabrous;  bracteoles located at or above middle of pedicel, similar to floral bract but 1-1.5 mm long.  Flowers 5-merous, with calyx articulate, glabrous, nitid, 3.3-4 mm long;  hypanthium subglobose to subcylindric, conspicuously constricted at limb, rugose, 1.8-2 mm long;  limb erect-spreading, 1.5-2 mm long;  lobes triangular to ovate-triangular, acuminate, 1-1.3 mm long;  sinuses rounded;  corolla cylindric-urceolate to ± campanulate-urceolate, ± 5-angled, 5-8 mm long, red, glabrous, the lobes ovate-deltate, bluntly acute, 1-1.5 mm long;  stamen 10, shorter than corolla, 3.6-4 mm long;  filaments distinct, ca. 2 mm long, marginally and dorsally short-pilose;  anthers 2.3-2.8 mm long;  thecae 1.3-1.5 mm long;  tubules 1-1.3 mm long, dehiscing by short, oblique pores;  style as long as corolla, glabrous.  Berry spherical, blue-black, nitid, glabrous, to ca. 9 mm diam.

    Distribution.  Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru;  montane cloud forest, southern Ecuadorean scrub vegetation, subpáramo, to grass and shrub páramo at 1800-3500 m altitude.