Rubus curvaciculatus

Rubus curvaciculatus is a European bramble belonging to the Rubus fruticosus aggregate, the large complex of apomictic microspecies that has radiated across temperate Britain and Western Europe. It is a scrambling deciduous shrub with strong, arching to procumbent, biennial primocanes 1.5–3 m long that are angled and armed with numerous curved prickles (whence the epithet curvaciculatus, 'with curved needles'). The leaves are usually palmately five-foliolate, with ovate to elliptic, doubly serrate leaflets that are green above and grey-tomentose beneath. Inflorescences are leafy terminal panicles of white to faintly pink five-petalled flowers about 2 cm across with many stamens. The aggregate fruit ripens through red to glossy black, juicy and edible. As an apomictic microspecies it reproduces by facultative apomixis and maintains its morphological identity over wide areas of Britain and adjacent Western Europe.