Rubus vulgaris

Rubus vulgaris Weihe & Nees is a European bramble of the Rosaceae belonging to the polymorphic Rubus fruticosus aggregate (blackberry microspecies). It is a scrambling, biennial-caned shrub forming dense thickets in hedgerows, woodland margins and open scrub, primarily in central Europe. First-year canes (primocanes) are arching, angular, armed with stout recurved prickles, and bear palmately compound leaves of usually five leaflets that are green above and paler, finely tomentose beneath. Second-year canes (floricanes) produce panicles of five-petalled white to pale-pink flowers in early to mid summer. The fruit is an aggregate drupelet that ripens through red to glossy black, edible and sweet. Like other members of the blackberry aggregate, it spreads by tip-rooting cane apices.