[nafex] (unknown)

[edforest55@hotmail.com]

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Can anyone help this fella, he wants to identify a plant he has. The 
fruit seems to have characteristics of both:

Blackberry or Raspberry? 

There are wild plants growing in my garden, and I'm not sure if they 
are blackberries or black raspberries.  From the information that I 
gathered, blackberries have wide, sturdy, and flared thorns on the 
canes, while raspberries have little prickly thorns all over the 
canes.  The thorns on my canes are wide, sturdy, and flared. 

However, I was also told that raspberries have cap-like fruit, and 
when picked, the stems stay on the plant, while with blackberries, 
the stems often come off during the harvest.  My berries are not very 
cap-like, but their stems do stay on the plant, and the top part of 
the fruit is hollow. 

Now for more of a description of the plants themselves; the deep 
green leaves grow in sets of five, with 4 leaves coming almost 
directly off the red cane (thus having very little stems).  These 
leaves grow at a 45 degree angle to the direction of the stem, 
pointing in 4 opposite directions.  The fifth leaf has a more 
pronounced stem, so it sticks out from the cane, and grows parallel 
to the cane. It is also usually the largest leaf in the cluster. 
They grow to be about 5 or 6 feet long, arching over themselves after 
reaching about 3 feet. 

It is September 21, and the plants are still fruiting in Northeastern 
PA (zone 5), although nowhere near as heavily as they were two months 
ago.  The flowers are white, with yellow centers, in late May, June, 
July, and even some in early August (bees love them).  Then berries 
are green, which matures into red, which darkens until they are a 
deep shiny black.  There are still red berries on the canes now.  
Ripe and especially over-ripe berries leave a purple stain on 
anything they touch.  The seeds are very numerous, and are also 
hard.  The berries normally are 3/4 of an inch to an inch in length, 
and are about 3/4 of an inch thick at the thickest part, which is 
just slightly below the stem end of the berry. 

Any help in identifting this plants would be greatly appreciated.