We moved to this house early August and there were tons of thorny brambles at the edge of the woods, but nothing on them, just thorns. Now, several of them have white flowers and others have clusters of buds. Could it be blackberry or raspberry? My plant ID app gives me several options of both along with some other common brambles. I would love to have berry bushes. These brambles are all over the edge of our yard, some as tall as 6 feet.

You are a bit frugal with your images. Post more, including shots of the entire plant, and then successively closer images of detailed plant parts.

I think you have a Blackberry species there, rather than a Raspberry (or Black Raspberry). Black Raspberry typically has glaucous stems (a whitish/grayish cast to their surface) compared to the Blackberry clan.

The characteristics of the thorns on the stems are also good separators of species. I have both the native Blackberry and Black Raspberry here at the Valley, and I'd much rather tangle with Black Raspberry. More more reserved in thorniness, Black Raspberry also is very flexibly pendant in its behavior, allowing its long stems to droop and touch the ground, rooting each time. Blackberry is stiffer and rip-your-head-off thorny - once it has hold of you, it is difficult to extract yourself without wounding and spending several days removing embedded thorn tips.

All that said: these species are valuable wildlife forage, and good for humans who are careful. They can spread rampantly of their own accord, with plenty of assists from birds/animals who eat and deposit seeds.

Thank you for your reply! The canes are long and do seem to droop. They seem to be more separated from each other, rather than being a clump of canes. The thorns are spread out.

I can't get a good shot of the whole plant because it is tangled up with other bushes and trees, but here are a few of one of the canes, and one of a group of them amongst other things.

I think you have a Blackberry there.

I will attempt to get home before dark, and take some comparative images of the Black Raspberry vs. Blackberry that have made themselves at home at Viburnum Valley Farm.

ViburnumValley said:I think you have a Blackberry there.

I will attempt to get home before dark, and take some comparative images of the Black Raspberry vs. Blackberry that have made themselves at home at Viburnum Valley Farm.

Thank you! I would be thrilled to have blackberries! It looks like I need to do some pruning though, as there are a lot of dead canes among the biggest patch.