While the flowers of Black Raspberry are not very showy, the fruit has excellent flavor and is rather colorful. The prickly canes are unpleasant to walk through or mow around, although less so than many species of blackberries. While both raspberries and blackberries are members of the same genus, the drupes of raspberries detach cleanly and easily from their receptacles, while the drupes of blackberries do not. Other native raspberries in Illinois produce drupes that are red at maturity, rather than black-purple. When drupes are unavailable for observation, Black Raspberry can be identified by the following features: 1) The white petals of the flowers are narrow, rather than broad and overlapping, 2) the compound leaves are usually trifoliate, rather than palmate with 5 or more leaflets, 3) the leaflets are white tomentose on their undersides, rather than some shade of green, and 4) young vegetative canes often have a white bloom that can be rubbed off (i.e., they are glaucous).