Flora of New Zealand Series

Japanese wineberry

Robust, suckering, scrambling shrub; stems terete, erect near base, distally trailing, up to 4 m high, hairy and densely covered in reddish, glandular bristles; armature of sparse, slender, mostly straight, flattened prickles. Lvs pinnately 3-foliolate; leaflets rugose and slightly pilose to subglabrous on upper surface, white-tomentose on lower surface, unevenly 1-2-serrate and often lobed; terminal leaflet lamina broadly ovate to orbicular, (20)-70-130 × (20)-60-130 mm, acute to acuminate, rounded to cordate at base, with petiolule 1/4-1/2 length of lamina; stipules linear; uppermost lvs sometimes simple. Infl. a short, terminal panicle leafy at base; axis and branches pilose and with dense reddish, glandular bristles. Fls c. 15-35 mm diam. Sepals triangular-lanceolate, long-acuminate, hairy and densely glandular, enclosing the fls and young fr. Petals orbicular, flat, pale pink to red. Fr. of orange-red to dark red drupelets, broad-conic to subglobose, c. 10-15 mm long.

N.: frequent from Auckland southwards; S.: scattered in Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury, Otago (Glenorchy).

E. Asia 1922

Scrub gullies, forest and scrub margins, roadsides, up to 450 m.

FL Nov-Jan FT Dec-Apr.

R. phoenicolasius has been cultivated for its sweet, edible fr. but is a vigorous and aggressive sp. which can rapidly colonise marginal land.