FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Old, dead stalks brown and brittle but still thorny. Stalks last two years: first year - long stalks rise unbranched from base; second year - stalks branch and flower. Berries are edible.
Synonym(s): Rubus abactus, Rubus argutus
Description: Thorny shrub with arching or erect branches, often forming extensive colonies.
Leaves: Leaves palmately compound, usually in 3 leaflets, with serrated edges and deep veins, hairy beneath.
Flowers/Fruit: White, usually 5-petaled, showy flowers at branch ends; may be solitary, in racemes, or in panicles. Flowers with numerous stamens and pistils. Fruit is a juicy, black, aggregated drupe, globular or elongated. Blooms April/May; fruits May to July.
Habit and Range: Found statewide in poorly drained fields, depressions, swales, pocosins, edges of marshes and swamps, swales, bogs, disturbed areas. Found at lower elevations in Mountains.
Taxonomic Note: The former Rubus argutus is now included within R. pensilvanicus.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
Rubus pensilvanicus (Pennsylvania blackberry) leaves are similar to Rubus hispidus (swamp dewberry) but Rubus hispidus crawls along the ground and has soft prickles.
Click here to view Rubus hispidus.
Link to side-by-side comparisons page
