Cutleaf blackberry

Rubus laciniatus, the cutleaf or evergreen blackberry, is a sprawling, semi-evergreen perennial shrub in the family Rosaceae, reaching 3 metres or more in height with long arching biennial canes armed with stout recurved prickles. It is readily distinguished from other blackberries by its deeply and intricately dissected, almost fern-like, palmately five-lobed leaflets, each leaflet again pinnately cut, dark green above and paler beneath. The white to pale pink flowers, about 2 to 3 centimetres across with five petals, are borne in terminal panicles in summer and develop into rounded, glossy black aggregate fruits about 1.5 centimetres long, ripening from red through to black in late summer and autumn. Of obscure horticultural origin in Europe, it has escaped widely from cultivation and is naturalised throughout western North America, Australia and New Zealand, often forming impenetrable thickets along roadsides, fencerows, riparian corridors and disturbed forest edges, where it is frequently considered a noxious weed.