Rubus epipsilos

Rubus epipsilos is a bramble microspecies within the highly polymorphic Rubus fruticosus aggregate of the Rosaceae, recognized chiefly from western and central Europe, particularly the British Isles, where botanists have segregated numerous closely allied apomictic forms. Plants form arching biennial canes 1–2.5 m long armed with slender, often slightly curved prickles, and produce palmately compound leaves of three to five elliptic to ovate leaflets that are dark green above and paler, finely pubescent beneath, with sharply double-toothed margins. Inflorescences are terminal panicles of white to pale pink, five-petaled flowers about 2 cm across, opening in early to midsummer. Fruits are typical blackberries: aggregates of glossy, black drupelets that ripen in late summer and autumn and are edible and sweet. Like the rest of the bramble aggregate, R. epipsilos grows in hedgerows, woodland edges, scrub, and waste ground on a wide range of soils.