Rubus placidus

Rubus placidus is a European microspecies within the Rubus fruticosus aggregate (bramble or blackberry group), a vast complex of apomictic shrubs in the Rosaceae. It is a scrambling, biennial-caned shrub forming dense thickets in hedgerows, woodland edges, and rough ground, with arching to procumbent stems bearing scattered, often slender prickles. The palmately compound leaves comprise three to five toothed leaflets, dark green above and paler, often softly hairy, beneath. Five-petalled white to pale pink flowers are arranged in terminal panicles in summer, followed by glossy black aggregate drupelets of edible blackberries. Distribution is centred on northern and central Europe. As one of many narrowly delimited agamospecies within R. fruticosus s.l., its morphology and use-character closely parallel the wider complex.