Terminal buds are absent. Stems exude milky sap when cut. The bark is rather thin, dark, and grayish-brown and peels off in long, narrow flakes. May flowers are small and greenish. The flowers are of two kinds on the same or different trees and borne in long, drooping catkins.
Female catkins are shorter and appear with the leaves.
The fruit is a dark purple aggregate that ripens in July and August and resembles a blackberry. However, a stalk extends through it centrally, and it is longer and narrower than a blackberry. The fruit is sweet and edible and greatly relished by birds and various animals. The fruit can be substituted for blackberries in recipes. The wood is rather light, soft, not strong, light orange-yellow, and very durable in contact with the soil.