Himalaya blackberry

Rubus armeniacus, the Himalaya or Armenian blackberry, is a vigorous deciduous shrub of the Rosaceae family native to Armenia and the surrounding Caucasus and now widely naturalised, often invasively, throughout temperate North America, Europe, and Australasia. It forms dense, impenetrable thickets up to three metres tall, with stout, ridged, arching biennial canes armed with broad-based, hooked prickles. The palmately compound leaves bear three to five large, ovate, sharply toothed leaflets, deep green above and densely white-felted beneath. In summer the plant produces large terminal panicles of five-petalled white to pale pink flowers, followed by glossy black aggregate fruits, sweet and juicy when fully ripe, formed of many small drupelets. It thrives on disturbed ground, riparian corridors, and forest edges.