Flora of New Zealand Series

Robust, scrambling shrub; primocanes arching, reddish when young, becoming greenish brown to purple, sometimes slightly pruinose, sharply angled and slightly concave between, with few to many subsessile and numerous long-stalked glandular hairs and sparsely to moderately clothed in mostly simple hairs; armature of numerous, stout, erect to slightly deflexed prickles on angles, and numerous pricklets on faces and angles. Young stems densely hairy and glandular. Leaflets 5, almost glabrous to very sparsely pilose on upper surface, pilose (especially on veins) and almost glabrous to densely tomentose between on lower surface, distinctly 2-serrate and sometimes lobed; terminal leaflet lamina usually elliptic, sometimes ovate- or oblong-elliptic, acuminate, 50-100-(130) × 30-80-(100) mm, with petiolule 1/4-3/7 length of lamina. Stipules linear. Infl. densely hairy, with subsessile and numerous long-stalked glands. Sepals long-acuminate to long-attentuate, sometimes toothed and with expanded apex, tomentose and with longer simple hairs, with pricklets. Petals rounded or obscurely notched, smooth, white or pale pink. Anthers glabrous.

N.: Taranaki, Wellington (Manawatu and Horowhenua); S.: Nelson, Canterbury, Westland.

Europe 1988

Wasteland, roadsides, river banks and flats, forest margins and clearings, scrub, up to c. 800 m.

FL Dec-Apr FT Mar-May.

In R. echinatus, the stems are covered with numerous short- to long-stalked glandular hairs and these grade into the pricklets which are usually glandular when young (Fig. 102). Only 2 other spp. in the R. fruticosus agg. in N.Z. have similar hairs and pricklets; R. echinatus is distinguished from R. erythrops by the redder stems, more distinctly 2-serrate lvs and longer prickles (the longest mostly 5-8 mm), and from R. tuberculatus by the stouter prickles, narrower stipules, and more frequent 5-foliolate lvs. Some early records of R. rudis, e.g., Allan (1940), may be based on plants of R. echinatus.