Plant: woody shrub; to 3 m tall; canes much-branched, erect, arching, or sprawling, and rooting at primocane tips; young epidermis with a prominent delicate white bloom; old epidermis not flaking off; plants mostly eglandular and minutely pilose to villous; prickles stout, broad-based, laterally flattened; cane prickles pointed or curved only slightly downward; those of the leaves and inflorescences smaller, strongly down-curved Leaves: deciduous, green above, white-tomentose below; leaflets usually ovate to lanceolate; margins singly to doubly serrate, occasionally lobed; primocane leaves 12-22 cm long, 10-18 cm wide, 3-foliolate to falsely appearing palmately 5-foliolate, the 2 lateral leaflets deeply divided with the 2 basal lobes imitating sessile, reflexed leaflets; floricane leaves 6-8(-13) cm long, 3-4(-8) cm wide, 3-foliolate INFLORESCENCE: simple obscurely bracteate cymes with 1-3 flowers, terminating short side-branches of the floricane, not surpassing the leaves Flowers: sepals erect to reflexed, 5-12 mm long, lanceolate to linear, attenuate, tomentose; petals white, 3-6 mm long; ovaries conspicuously gray-tomentose until maturity; styles glabrous Fruit: palatable, spherical to hemispherical, coherent, separating from the torus; drupelets finely canescent, usually dark purple to almost black, sometimes reddish or yellow-red, fleshy Misc: Usually riparian or wet areas in pine or mixed conifer forests; 1800-2450 m (5900-800 ft); May-Jun REFERENCES: Brasher, Jeffrey W. 2001. Rosaceae. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 33(1).