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.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shade-intolerant, sub montane to montane, European deciduous shrub introduced to North America (presently transcontinental). Species occurs on water-shedding and water-receiving sites in boreal. temperate, cool semiarid, and cool mesothermal climates; on fresh to very moist, nitrogen-rich soils. Plentiful in initial communities on cutover and burnt sites; scattered in open-canopy, immature forests. Often associated with Epilobium angustifolium, Pteridium aquilinum, and Rubus parviflorus. May hinder natural regeneration, and establishment of shade-intolerant conifers. Nitrophytic species characteristic of disturbed sites.
