Rubus cissoides
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Rubus cissoides' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Common Names
- Bush Lawyer
Synonyms
- R. australia var. cissoides (A. Cunn.) Hook. f.
- R. australis sens. some authors, in part, not Forst.
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
- Rubus adenophorus
- Rubus amabilis
- Rubus biflorus
- Rubus caesius
- Rubus calycinoides
- Rubus chroosepalus
- Rubus cockburnianus
- Rubus corchorifolius
- Rubus coreanus
- Rubus crataegifolius
- Rubus deliciosus
- Rubus flagelliflorus
- Rubus flosculosus
- Rubus henryi
- Rubus hispidus
- Rubus hupehensis
- Rubus ichangensis
- Rubus idaeus
- Rubus illecebrosus
- Rubus irenaeus
- Rubus koehneanus
- Rubus kuntzeanus
- Rubus laciniatus
- Rubus lambertianus
- Rubus lasiostylus
- Rubus lineatus
- Rubus malifolius
- Rubus mesogaeus
- Rubus nepalensis
- Rubus × nobilis
- Rubus occidentalis
- Rubus odoratus
- Rubus palmatus
- Rubus parkeri
- Rubus parviflorus
- Rubus parvifolius
- Rubus parvus
- Rubus pedunculosus
- Rubus phoenicolasius
- Rubus playfairianus
- Rubus setchuenensis
- Rubus spectabilis
- Rubus subornatus
- Rubus thibetanus
- Rubus trianthus
- Rubus tricolor
- Rubus trifidus
- Rubus ulmifolius
A climbing evergreen dioecious shrub, sometimes reaching to the top of lofty trees in the wild; main stems stout, unarmed; branchlets armed with hooked, reddish prickles. Leaves with three to five leaflets, which are glabrous and glossy above, of leathery texture, serrate, varying much in shape: in some forms (believed to be a juvenile phase) they are linear-lanceolate, 3 to 6 in. long but only 1⁄8 to 3⁄8 in. wide, in others ovate-lanceolate, 21⁄2 to 6 in. long and about 1 in. wide, with a somewhat cordate base, in others again relatively broader, with a truncate or oblique base; main-stalk and the stalks of the leaflets armed with recurved prickles. Flowers unisexual, white, about 1⁄2 in. across, produced in often much-branched panicles up to 2 ft long. Fruits about 1⁄4 in. wide, reddish orange, only produced when both sexes are grown.
Native of New Zealand. It is the most handsome of the New Zealand Rubi, at least in flower, but tender away from a wall outside the milder parts. It has been confused with R. australis Forst., which has smaller, thinner, long-stalked leaflets up to 2 in. long and 13⁄4 in. wide; shorter panicles, to 8 in. long, sometimes reduced to racemes; and yellowish fruits.
R squarrosus Fritsch
Synonyms
R. cissoides var. pauperatus Kirk
In the forests this is a tall climber, its leaves composed of three or five leaflets, which are ovate or ovate-lanceolate, up to 2{1/2} in. or slightly more long. Flowers yellowish, in panicles to 6 in. long. Prickles of branchlets yellow. In open places, however, it forms a low, intricately branched shrub with green stems and ‘skeletonised’ leaves: the blade of the leaflet is reduced almost to nothing, being {1/4} to {1/2} in. long and {1/16} to {1/8} in. wide, while the main stalk and the stalks of the leaflets are up to 8 in. long and usually strongly armed with prickles. This form is well illustrated in Davies, New Zealand Native Plant Studies (1956), p. 71. According to Cockayne, such plants, growing in shade, develop larger leaflets and may bear flowers (which apparently the skeletonised form never does).
