[2] Like other dewberries, it is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, related to the blackberry and raspberry.

[3] It is a small shrub growing up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall with biennial stems which die after fruiting in their second year.

They are stalked and the leaf blades are palmate in shape, either consisting of three oval leaflets with serrated margins and acute points or just being three-lobed.

[4][5] Rubus caesius is widely distributed across much of Europe and Asia from Ireland and Portugal as far east as Xinjiang Province in western China.

[citation needed] Alice et al., 2001 find R. caesius is a tetraploid blackberry which hybridises especially with R. idaeus and others of the genus.