Flower:

Clusters of 3 to 10 flowers on lateral shoots along 1-year-old stems, the cluster shape usually compact but variable, often a flattish/convex cluster (corymb or cyme), sometimes a raceme. Flowers are white, 1¼ to 1¾ inches (3.2 to 4.5 cm) across with 5 rounded petals. In the center is a green cluster of many styles surrounded by a ring of numerous, creamy white-tipped stamens.

Cupping the flower are 5 green sepals, triangular to egg-shaped, the tip typically abruptly narrowed with a tail-like extension, the outer surface covered in non-glandular hairs with dense, white woolly hairs along the edges. Flower stalks are sparsely to moderately covered in long soft hairs, rarely with 1 or 2 small prickles.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are alternate and palmately compound, the non-flowering first-year stems (primocanes) with 5 leaflets or sometimes 3 on the lower stem, the flowering second-year stems (floricanes) with mostly 3 leaflets. Leaflets are elliptic to broadly egg-shaped, sharply toothed around the edges, sparsely hairy on the upper surface, moderately to velvety hairy on the lower. The terminal leaflet on primocanes is 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 cm) long, to 4+ inches (6 to 11 cm) wide, widest at the middle or near the base, rounded to heart-shaped at the base, abruptly tapered to an extended or tail-like tip.

Leaflet stalks are hairless to sparsely covered in non-glandular hairs with scattered broad-based, curved prickles. At the base of the compound leaf stalk is a pair of linear to lance-linear appendages (stipules) up to ~½ inch (10 to 14 mm) long.

Stem prickles are small, up to about 1/8 inch (1.5 to 3.5 mm) long, broad-based, declined to curved, usually sparse and unevenly spaced along the stem. Glandular hairs are absent. Stems are up to 8½ feet (to 2.6 m) long, green to dark red or purple, prostrate or initially erect, soon arching over and the tips trailing along the ground. Arching stems tend to fall over each other and form a dense, tangled mound, the trailing stems often taking root at the tip. Stems die the second year after fruit matures. Colonies may form from root suckering and tip-rooting.

Fruit:

Fruit is a round to short-cylindric cluster of fleshy drupelets, up to about ¾ inch (8 to 18 mm) long, maturing from green to red to black, and are quite tasty.

Notes:

Downy Racemose Dewberry reaches the northwestern tip of its range in Minnesota, where it's primarily found in woodland edges where it gets at least intermittent sun, and is noted as the most common Dewberry in the state.

Rubus is a large and difficult genus; both first year (non-flowering primocane) and second year (flowering/fruiting floricane) stems from the same plant may be necessary for a positive ID. Multiple species frequently grow together so stems from the same plant is recommended. Primocanes should be used for stem and leaf characteristics, floricanes mostly for just flowers and fruit. Characteristics to look for are the size and shape of the flower cluster as well as the flower, whether there are glandular and/or non-glandular hairs (on sepals, leaves, stalks and/or stems), whether there are any broad-based prickles or needle-like bristles, number of leaflets on the primocane and whether they are palmately or pinnately compound, whether canes are low-growing or trailing along the ground and/or root at the tip. In some species, the leaflet shape may also be relevant. Floricane leaves are frequently different from primocane leaves in shape and/or number of leaflets so are not a good substitute, and keep in mind that primocanes mature and tip-rooting occurs later in the season than peak flowering time.

Rubus satis is identified by the combination of: no glandular hairs anywhere; prickles are scattered and fairly small, to 3.5 mm long, broad-based, curved to declined; lower leaf surface is usually velvety hairy; the flower cluster is typically small and fairly compact, variable in shape (corymb or raceme) with 3 to 10 flowers, the sepals softly hairy with white woolly hairs along the edges. Primocane leaves mostly have 5 leaflets, the terminal leaflet elliptic to egg-shaped, its base rounded to heart-shaped. Canes can reach 8½ feet in length but arch over anywhere between ankle and waist height, resulting in a tangled, mounding colony, the tips usually trailing along the ground and often rooting at the tip.

In many references R. satis is lumped with Rubus flagellaris, along with other MN species R. ferrofluvius, R. heterophyllus, R. ithacanus, R. multifer, and R. steelei, but we follow the treatments by Mark Widrlechner and documented by Welby Smith in his book “Trees and Shrubs of Minnesota”, which keeps them split as separate species. R. flagellaris is apparently a dumping ground for Dewberries that have broad-based prickles and stems that trail along the ground, rooting at the tips, but other characteristics can be rather variable.

Most similar from this group is R. ithacanus. Both have velvety leaves and can grow low like a ground cover, but R. ithacanus has larger, stronger, mostly straight prickles, has glandular hairs on sepals, flower stalks and at least some on primocanes, and its flower/fruit clusters are larger with 5 to 15+ flowers in a raceme or ascendate cluster, with single flowers or small clusters from leafy nodes below the terminal cluster. It can also be rather robust, with stout 6+ foot canes forming waist-high (or higher) mounds. All of the R. satis populations I've seen have been pretty low to the ground.