Blackberries are edible fruits produced by many species of Rubus in Rosaceae. They belong to the hybrids between these species in Rubus and between Rubus and subgenus Idaho Bati. Because of hybridization and apomixis, the classification of BlackBerry has always been confused, so species are often combined, called species aggregation. For example, the entire genus Rubus is known as Rubus aggregate, although the species is considered synonymous with R. plicatus.

The difference between blackberry and raspberry relatives is whether the ring (socket or stem) is "fused" with the fruit (i.e. kept together). When picking blackberry fruit, the ring does stay on the fruit. When using raspberries, the receptacle remains on the plant, leaving a void in the raspberry fruit.

Traditionally, the term "thorn" refers to any impenetrable bush, but in the United States, blackberry or its products specifically use the term "thorn". In the western United States, the word caneberry is used to refer to blackberries and raspberries as a whole, not bramble.

In a botanical sense, usually black fruits are not berries. In Botany, it is called the aggregate fruit composed of small fruit cores. It is a wide and famous group with 375 species, many of which are closely related to apomixis, which are distributed in Europe, northwest Africa, temperate West Asia and Central Asia, North America and South America.