They are small trailing (rather than upright or high-arching) brambles with aggregate fruits, reminiscent of the raspberry, but are usually purple to black instead of red. Dewberries are common throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and are thought of as a beneficial weed.

How can you tell the difference between blackberries and dewberries?

Dewberries have smaller fruit and grow with trailing stems along the ground, whereas cultivated blackberries have larger fruit and a more upright growth pattern. Some are thornless and have a better flavor to their fruit.

How do I identify dewberries?

If the stem on your ground-trailing vine is reddish in color with red-tinted hairs and thin, fine thorns, it's a dewberry. Blackberries, which grow upward, have no hairs, and the thorns are hard and tough.