Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Rubus roribaccus

Dried specimen. Missouri Botanical Garden, USA

Common name

North American Dewberry, Lucretia Dewberry

Family

Rosaceae

Where found

Occasionally naturalised. Sydney area and north. Blue Mountains.

Notes

Introduced prostrate to low arching semi-deciduous shrub to 0.3 m high. Produces roots at the stem tips. Fruit fleshy. Prickles 2–3 mm long on the stems (not confined to the stem angles), sometimes on midribs on the backs of the leaves, and on the flower stalks. Fruit fleshy. Stems bluntly angled, hairless or sparsely hairy, with many stalkless dark red glands. Leaves alternating up the stems, compound, with 3 or 5 leaflets, both surfaces sparsely hairy, mostly on the veins. Terminal leaflet on non-flowering stems usually the largest, mostly 7–8 cm long, 40–60 mm wide. Leaves at the base of the flowering stems with 3 leaflets, the terminal leaflet mostly 2.5–6 cm long, 15–35 mm wide. Flowers white, with 5 petals each 16–20 mm long, oval to oval, not crumpled. Flowers in clusters of 1–8 flowers. Flowering: mainly spring and summer. Fruit initially green, ripening red, maturing black, oval to oblong, 10–20 mm long.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Rubus~roribaccus (accessed accessed 18 March 2021)

Flora of North America description (as Rubus flagellaris):  http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242417161 (accessed 18 March 2021)