Flora of New Zealand Series

sweet brier

Deciduous, rather erect, sometimes dense shrub 1-3-(5) m high, often with suckers; stems ± erect except in young plants, often with glandular hairs when young, otherwise glabrous; armature of few to numerous, unequal, flattened, moderately curved to strongly falcate prickles and pricklets, and sometimes acicles. Lvs with 2-3-(4) pairs of leaflets; petiole 10-25 mm long, ± finely tomentose and with glandular hairs and scattered pricklets; stipules completely adnate, generally clothed in very short glandular hairs, fringed with numerous small glandular hairs. Lamina of leaflets 12-40-(50) × 8-28-(35) mm, broadly elliptic to elliptic-obovate, sometimes suborbicular, dull green and glabrous above, with ± numerous, ± subsessile, pale glands beneath and with eglandular hairs on veins, sometimes hairs dense on midrib; margins ± 2-serrate, with glandular hairs; base rounded; apex acute or subacute, sometimes rounded. Fls 1-3-(6), single, (20)-25-40 mm diam.; pedicels usually with many hispid glands. Sepals ± persistent, lanceolate to ovate, long-acuminate or sometimes with an expanded apical tail, tomentose inside, ± densely clothed in stiff, spreading glandular hairs outside and on margins; outer sepals pinnatisect with a few linear to narrowly elliptic lobes. Petals (8)-12-20 mm long, obovate or cuneiform, pink or deep pink (especially in bud) except for whitish base. Styles free, slightly exserted, densely hairy or villous. Fr. (10)-12-22-(28) × (8)-10-18-(20) mm, broadly ovoid, broadly ellipsoid, urceolate, ellipsoid-obovoid, subglobose or globose, occasionally narrow-ellipsoid (sterile aneuploids), red or orange-red, usually glabrous except at base, sometimes with dark red hispid glands.

N.; S.: in nearly all districts but often scattered and uncommon in wetter areas in the west of the South Id, especially abundant in drier eastern areas from Hawke's Bay S.; St.; Ch.

Europe, N. Africa 1867

Tussock grasslands, open, well-drained sites on roadsides, river flats, banks and terraces, stabilised scree, steep open slopes, lakesides and streamsides; sea level to c. 1000 m.

FL Nov-Jan FT Feb-May.

As early as 1835 Charles Darwin noted the presence of sweet brier in the gardens of the missionary settlements of the Bay of Islands. It was mainly introduced to cultivation as an ornamental because it had great sentimental appeal to people from W. Europe, being important in the folklore of that region. By the 1860s it had become wild in N.Z. and by 1900 was sufficiently common to be regarded as a noxious weed. Since then it has continued to spread and efforts have been made to control it without much success. In many of the habitats mentioned above it is the dominant woody sp. but nearly always grows where other woody plants are rather sparse or absent. Thus, R. rubiginosa is by far the commonest naturalised sp. of the genus. It does not vary greatly in N.Z. although it does so in Europe where a number of forms have been recognised. From the other members of sect. Caninae, with the exception of the closely related R. micrantha, it is immediately recognisable by the abundance of glands (Fig. 100) and the strong smell of apples. From R. micrantha it is distinguished by the unequal prickles (Fig. 100), petal colour and hairiness of the styles. The morphology and ecology of sweet brier in N.Z. has been discussed by Molloy, B. P. J., Proc. 17th Weed and Pest Control Conf. 19-27 (1964) and New Zealand J. Agr. 109: 105-118 (1964). In the latter account occasional hybrids between R. rubiginosa and R. canina are described; these may be sterile or fertile. An example of a vigorous fertile hybrid is CHR 122251, near Fairlie, Canterbury, Healy, 26.2.1957.

The name R. eglanteria L. is often used for sweet brier in N.Z. and elsewhere and the old common name eglantine is also occasionally still used here.