Flora of New Zealand Series

raspberry

Suckering, erect shrub, up to 1.5-(3) m high; stems erect when young, sometimes almost decumbent when older, terete, sparsely to densely hairy when young, soon becoming glabrous, somewhat pruinose, suckering by adventitious buds; armature of weak, ± terete, erect prickles, these often very numerous (rarely almost 0) on young stems and sometimes sparse on older stems. Lvs usually imparipinnate with 2-(3) pairs of leaflets, rarely pinnately 3-foliolate, rugose, glabrescent, sometimes with whitish bloom on upper surface, densely white-tomentose on lower surface, 1-2-serrate; terminal leaflet ovate to ovate-oblong, sometimes slightly lobed, up to 115 × 85 mm, acuminate, truncate to cordate at base, petiolulate; stipules linear. Infl. a few-flowered leafy raceme; axis and branches pilose and prickly. Fls 20-25 mm diam. Sepals long-triangular, acuminate, tomentose, paler on margins, deflexed at fruiting. Petals narrow, flat, white. Stamen filaments white. Fr. of waxy, red or orange drupelets, cylindric, up to 15 mm long.

N.: Auckland (Hunua), Wellington City, Hutt Valley; S.: Canterbury (scattered throughout plains and foothills, Banks Peninsula, Mt Cook), Otago (Gabriels Gully, Beaumont, Skippers), Southland (Eglinton Valley).

N. temperate, E. Asia 1870

Roadsides, wasteland, streambanks, scrub edges, sometimes forming dense thickets.

FL Nov-Jan FT Jan-Mar.

Many variants of this sp. commonly occur in cultivation although most naturalised material is fairly uniform. Forms with a white bloom on the upper side of the leaflets occur near Methven, Canterbury.

One collection (CHR 89740, Upper Hutt, Healy 50/409, 24.11.1950) is similar to R. idaeus in most characters but differs in having longer and denser spines on the young canes, prostrate older stems with the larger fls borne on short lateral shoots, the lvs more often 3-foliolate, and the leaflets less densely tomentose below and often acute or obtuse rather than acuminate. The plant probably represents an early horticultural hybrid with R. idaeus as one parent, but is not loganberry or boysenberry. This collection has been previously recorded in N.Z. as R. spectabilis  (Given 1982), a quite distinct sp. with lvs subglabrous on the lower surface and bright purple petals.