Flowers usually produce a single shiny red fruit, in the form of a cluster of drupelets (several tiny berries attached to a central receptacle), in early July.

[8] Dewberry is found in moist conifer or mixed-wood forests, with canopies dominated by spruce and fir with lesser components of aspen, maple, birch, or pine.

It is often found growing with bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), wild lily of the valley (Maianthemum canadense), and goldthread (Coptis trifolia).

Dewberry is most common in boreal and temperate forested areas of Canada and the United States of America, but ranges from montane to coastal elevations, and from the arctic to the great plains, giving it a wide distribution in both north-south and east-west directions.

Although the shallow-rooting tendency of dewberry makes it susceptible to damage by fire, it spreads quickly over a site by rhizomes, and can become an important component of ground cover after low and moderate-intensity disturbance,[9] thereby reducing soil water loss from evaporation.