Rubus fruticosus L.
(C.J.W., D.R.G.)
blackberry
Scrambling shrub, suckering, usually semi-erect with stems arching and entangling, sometimes semi-prostrate or almost erect; stems usually angled, flat to concave or furrowed between angles, rarely terete, sometimes striate, glabrous to moderately hairy especially on young growth, often with subsessile glands, sometimes with stalked glands, sometimes pruinose, green to purplish or red or flecked; armature of prickles, and sometimes also pricklets or acicles. Lvs palmate with (3)-5-(7) leaflets; petioles and petiolules usually pilose to tomentose and prickly; leaflets glabrous to pilose on upper surface, usually pilose or tomentose on lower surface, dentate to 1-2-serrate or sometimes obscurely lobed or deeply 1-2-pinnatisect; terminal leaflets usually obovate or ovate, sometimes elliptic, oblong, orbicular or deltoid, 30-160 × 15-110-(150) mm, petiolulate; stipules usually linear or linear-lanceolate, sometimes lanceolate to elliptic. Infl. a cylindric to pyramidal, usually many-flowered panicle, often leafy at least in lower part, sometimes fls 1-few; axis and branches usually prickly and pilose or tomentose, sometimes with stalked glands. Fls 15-60 mm diam. Sepals usually lanceolate to ovate or ovate-triangular, acute and apiculate to acuminate or long-attenuate and sometimes leafy at tip, pilose to tomentose, sometimes with pricklets or stalked glands, usually deflexed or rarely ± erect at fruiting. Petals rounded to notched, flat or crinkled, white to deep pink. Stamen filaments white or pink. Fr. of black, usually shiny or rarely pruinose drupelets, ovoid, oblong or cylindric, 10-15-(18) mm long.
Key
N.; S.: widespread throughout and generally occurring wherever there has been settlement or significant disturbance of primary vegetation up to c. 1000-(1200) m; St.; Ch.
N. temperate 1867
Roadsides, hedgerows, farmland, wasteland, scrub, forest margins and clearings, riverbeds, gardens, embankments, swamps.
FL Nov-Apr-(May) FT Nov-May.
Blackberries were first recorded wild in N.Z. by Kirk as R. discolor and R. rudis. In the following treatment 19 naturalised microspp. and 1 hybrid are accepted. The extensive collections of D. R. Given and H. K. Hall were used as a basis for descriptions, and names follow the recommendations and determinations of A. Newton, United Kingdom, for European and Asian plants, and the determinations of R. E. Gereau, U.S.A., for the 4 N. American spp. Some of the spp. in this complex are easily recognised but others are difficult to distinguish. The occurrence of hybrids between several spp. pairs makes circumscription of some N.Z. spp. more difficult. The following should be regarded as a provisional guide to the microspp. of the complex rather than as a definitive treatment.
Specimens of Rubus are frequently inadequate for accurate identification. They should include a complete pair of lvs and adjacent stem taken from the middle part of a first-year non-flowering stem (primocane), a piece of young shoot with unfolding lvs, and a complete infl. bearing fls and young fr. Shade material should be avoided and notes made of stem and petal colour, petal texture, and sepal attitude in relation to fr. Important diagnostic characters include armature and vestiture (on primocanes (Fig. 102) and infl.), lf shape and vestiture, and sepal shape and vestiture (Fig. 103).
Members of the R. fruticosus agg. have accompanied European settlement throughout the temperate world. Although a rampant, and at times serious agricultural pest, it is traditionally a valued source of fr. and plants were brought to N.Z. in the early days of European settlement for this purpose. Field studies are indicating that the agamospp. belonging to this agg. each tend to have a discrete regional distribution, largely reflecting patterns of introduction by the early settlers. Some spp. may have arrived from Australia. The Melbourne Botanic Gardens distributed blackberries in the middle decades of last century and all the spp. described for Victoria, Australia, by Amor, R. L. and Miles, B. A., Muelleria 3: 37-62 (1974), are recorded in N.Z. although sometimes under different epithets.
