Flora of New Zealand Series

Very robust, scrambling shrub; primocanes arching, brownish to purple, occasionally slightly pruinose, sharply angled and flat to slightly concave between, with sometimes a few subsessile glands, otherwise glabrous or almost glabrous; armature of many, stout, erect prickles on angles. Young stems sparsely to moderately hairy and sparsely glandular. Leaflets 5, sparsely pilose or almost glabrous on upper surface, pilose on veins and with dense whitish tomentum between on lower surface, 1-2-serrate-dentate; terminal leaflet lamina orbicular to obovate- or ovate-elliptic, acuminate, (60)-80-160 × (40)-50-100-(150) mm, with petiole 1/4-1/2 length of lamina. Stipules linear to narrow-lanceolate. Infl. densely hairy, with subsessile glands. Sepals acuminate, tomentose and with longer, simple hairs, rarely with a few pricklets. Petals rounded or shallowly notched, slightly crinkled, usually pale pink. Anthers usually glabrous, sometimes with 1-2 hairs.

N.: local from N. Auckland to Wellington; S.: locally common in Canterbury, also collected from S. Marlborough.

S.W. Asia 1940

Roadsides, waste places, scrub, forest margins, streamsides.

FL (Aug)-Dec-Feb-(Mar).

This exceedingly vigorous sp. can usually be recognised easily by the large leaflets with a whitish lower surface. South Id plants generally have narrower leaflets and greener young shoots. It is a member of the R. discolor Weihe et Nees group and was treated by Heslop-Harrison, Y., in Fl. Europ. 2: 16 (1968), as a vigorous variant of R. discolor. It was probably introduced for its fr. as Himalayan giant blackberry, and it is sometimes known under the name R. armeniacus Focke. Allan's (1940) record of R. radula appears to be based on material of both R. procerus and R. vestitus. R. procerus has been wild in N.Z. at least since late last century.