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| 1 Stems creeping to trailing, 1-3 dm tall; petals 4-7 mm long, pink |
| 1 Stems arching to erect, 5-25 (-30) dm tall; petals either 5-15 (-18) mm long, white, or 4-6 mm long, white or pink (R. phoenicolasius). |
| ..2 Floricane leaves pinnately (3-) 5-9-foliolate; aggregate fruit with 50-100 drupelets |
| ..2 Floricane leaves 1-3-foliolate; aggregate fruit with 10-60 drupelets. |
| ....3 Inflorescence paniculiform, many-flowered; berries sticky, purplish-red, lacking a glaucous bloom |
| ....3 Inflorescence corymbiform, few-flowered; berries not sticky, black or red (rarely purplish or yellow), with a glaucous bloom. |
......4 Fruit black (rarely yellow); pedicels with stout curved prickles; stems (at least the primocanes) strongly white-glaucous |
| ......4 Fruit red (rarely purple or yellow); pedicels with narrow straight bristles and sometimes also glandular hairs; stems green. |
| ........5 Leaves green, sparsely soft-hairy beneath; inflorescences with 1 (-3)-flowers |
| ........5 Leaves densely white-tomentose beneath; inflorescences with (1-) 3-7 (-20) flowers. |
| ..........6 Inflorescence without glandular hairs or gland-tipped bristles; [alien, cultivated, sometimes escaped or persistent] |
| ..........6 Inflorescence with glandular hairs and gland-tipped bristles; [native, Mountains of NC and VA northwards] |