General:
Medium to tall, coarse shrub, 2-10 m or more long, thicket-forming; stems 3-10 mm in diameter, ascending or arching, then sprawling and trailing along the ground, some rooting at the ends, five-angled, with stout, flattened, hooked prickles along the angles, fine-hairy when young becoming smooth.

Leaves:
Alternate, evergreen, palmately compound; leaflets 5, more or less egg-shaped in outline, deeply and jaggedly lobed to divided into secondary leaflets themselves jaggedly lobed or coarsely toothed, abruptly sharp-pointed at the tip, green and smooth or slightly hairy above, hairy and greyish-green beneath, the leaf-stalks and midveins beneath hooked-prickly; stipules linear.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of few to many, stalked flowers in open, somewhat flat-topped, terminal or sometimes axillary clusters, the stalks curved-prickly and soft-hairy; corollas pinkish to white, the petals 5, spreading, wedge-egg-shaped and 3-lobed at the tip, 9-15 mm long; calyces downy and prickly on the back, 5-lobed, the lobes lanceolate with long tail-like tips, bent back, 8-15 mm long; ovaries superior; stamens 75 or more.

Fruits:
Drupelets, smooth, coherent in a black, globe- to egg-shaped cluster that falls with the fleshy receptacle (a blackberry), the berries 1-1.5 cm long.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Flower Colour:
White

Blooming Period:
Early Summer

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Black
Present from Summer to Fall

Source:  The USDA