This might not look like a macro, but it is. The flowers are presented at close to twice life size (unless you are viewing this on a phone). They were growing in clumps of low leafless branches the last week in September down among the taller grasses and left-over Blazing Star stems on the Kennebunk Plains (a sand plain prairie or heath remnant in Southern Maine). They have woody stems, so I am thinking some kind of very small shrub rather than a wildflower. As you may have noticed, they have resisted identification so far. The second shot shows more of the stem and growth pattern, and the 3rd and 4th show the massed effect of the clumps.

It is not any of the common heath berries: blue (low or high-bush), bear, cran, or huckle, and it is not a heather, as they all have bell like flowers which do not open to show five distinct petals like these. I would guess this a member of the rose family, but I can’t get any closer than that. Any help would be appreciated.

Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. The macro shot is 24mm macro plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function. f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160.

Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.