What Is a Dewberry Fruit?

Size

• Dewberry plants grow as a groundcover, and usually don't reach more than 2 feet in height. This is a different growth habit from other blackberries, which grow upright on canes or stems and reach as tall as 6 feet.

Features

• The dewberry plant is vine-like, and the stems have prickly, bright red thorns on the stems. The plant also features bright white flowers with light yellow centers that appear in the springtime, and complement the ovate Kelly green leaves before the fruit grows on the plant. Dewberry plants can tolerate full sun, as they often grow wild as weeds and are hard to control. The plant will also thrive in a variety of soil conditions, including dry or rocky soil, or soil that is sandy and loamy.

Harvest-Ready

• Dewberry tastes similar to a small blackberry, and has a sweet but slightly tangy flavor. They are sweeter than raspberries, and have an earthy flavor. When dewberries are ripe, they're a rich purple or near-black color; before they're ready to eat, the berries possess a yellowish red color that changes to deep red, then transforms to a pronounced shade of purple. Dewberries have several clusters of drupelets that contain the fruit's flavor and juice, and grow to about half the size of a thumb when fully ripe.

Agricultural and Safety Concerns

• According to the University of Florida, dewberry and blackberry plants can lead to financial loss in the agricultural world. Cattle farmers in Florida often run the risk of cows being seriously injured by dewberry thorns; the red prickly stem features can harm a bull's reproductive organs, which can inhibit the bull's ability to reproduce, or create lesions on the animal that lead to infection. The thorns on the dewberry and blackberry plants can also scratch a cow's udder as the animal walks through the plants, resulting in low milk production and udder infection. Farmers also spend substantial amounts of money to purchase pesticides to kill or control dewberries. According to Dr. Stephanie Suesan Smith, excessive dewberry growth creates a thorny carpet in a pasture that prevents other plants from growing. Animals can't walk through the pasture to graze, and even animals that eat the berries, like deer, can't consume the fruits fast enough to truly reduce growth. Dewberries have the potential to absorb all the nutrients from soil that other plants in the pasture or plot of land need to grow, and Dr. Smith asserts that eventually the land will become sterile.