It is native to Europe and North Africa, and has also become naturalized in parts of the United States (especially California), Australia, and southern South America.

Rubus ulmifolius is a brambly shrub sometimes as much as 5 meters (almost 17 feet) tall, sometimes with spines but not always.

The fruit is a compound drupe, dark purple, almost black.

[3] Rubus ulmifolius is found in its native range across Western Europe, from the Netherlands south to Spain and Portugal, in Britain and Ireland, as well as NW Africa.

[citation needed] In Britain and Ireland it is a plant of hedges and woodland edges on calcareous soils.