Rubus cardiophyllus

Rubus cardiophyllus, the heart-leaved or round-fruited bramble, is one of the many apomictic microspecies of the European blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) aggregate in the rose family (Rosaceae). It is a scrambling, woody-stemmed perennial whose long, arching, biennial canes are armed with stout prickles and root at the tips to form thickets. The leaves are palmately compound with usually three to five toothed leaflets, the terminal leaflet often broad and heart-shaped at the base (giving the epithet cardiophyllus), green above and paler beneath. The five-petalled flowers are white to pale pink, borne in branched clusters, and are followed by the familiar aggregate fruit of small black drupelets, here rather rounded. Native to north-western and western Europe, including Britain, it is widespread and locally frequent in scrub, open woodland, wood margins and hedgerows on a range of soils, though largely absent from low-lying ground, and grows mainly in the temperate biome.