Vaccinium dentatum is a decumbent, sprawling, or weakly rhizomatous shrub growing to 0.3–3 meters tall. The leaves are simple and alternate, with elliptic blades to narrowly elliptic, measuring 4–9 cm long and 1–3 cm wide. The surfaces are usually glabrous at maturity, occasionally glandular, and rarely puberulent; the blades are persistent and coriaceous. The margins are serrate. The leaves are short-petiolate and lack stipules. The flowers are found in bracteate axillary racemes and are bisexual (perfect), with 1–3 cm long pedicels. The calyx is (4)5-lobed, often minutely puberulent, especially before anthesis, with lanceolate lobes longer than the tube at anthesis and persistent. The corolla is (4)5-lobed and can be red with greenish lobes, green with red stripes, greenish-yellow with pink stripes, or pink with greenish lobes, urceolate to cylindrical, and 9–12 mm long. There are (8)10(12) stamens with filaments inserted at the disk’s outer margin or near the corolla tube’s base. The anther sacs have tubules, and the anthers become inverted during development, making the morphological base the apparent apex and dithecal. The ovary is inferior with axile placentation, a single hollow style, a fluted cavity aligned with the cells, and a wet, obtuse stigma. The fruit are berries that are bright red to scarlet, edible, and 8–10 mm in diameter. The seeds are small and numerous (80–140), ellipsoid, with a smooth and thin seed coat. The endosperm is firm-fleshy, well-developed, oily, and proteinaceous. It grows along forest edges, open areas, on stumps in wet forests, bogs, swamps, or along windy, exposed ridges between 700-1,200 meters.