Troublesome Pasture Plant of the Week – Blackberries/Dewberries

Blackberry (Rubus sp.) is a warm season, native, perennial, woody shrub, or bramble. They are members of the Rosaceae, or rose family, which includes over 600 species and developed varieties of blackberries, raspberries, and dewberries in the Rubus genus. Just another sticker plant found in abandoned fields, pastures, hayfields, and along roadsides which greatly reduces the grazing potential and hay quality on our farms. There are least 16 species of blackberries found in Missouri. Here we are addressing the upright, cane–type blackberry varieties, whose canes can reach heights of over 6 feet and develop into quite a thicket if left to grow. Along with this is another plant which closely resembles blackberries but is not.