Rubus ursinus
Rubus laciniatus
California blackberry, California or Pacific or creeping blackberry, dewberry, Douglasberry, dwarf red raspberry, Pacific blackberry, Pacific dewberry, Pacific trailing blackberry, salmonberry, trailing blackberry
cut-leaf blackberry, cutleaf evergreen blackberry, evergreen blackberry
biennial, creeping (often growing over other vegetation), sparsely to densely hairy, eglandular or sparsely to densely sessile- to stipitate-glandular, usually strongly pruinose;
prickles moderate to dense, erect to retrorse or hooked, weak to moderately stout, 4–10 mm, narrow- to broad-based.
biennial, arching, sometimes creeping, glabrate to moderately hairy, sparsely to densely sessile- to short-stipitate-glandular, not or weakly pruinose;
prickles moderately dense to dense, suberect to retrorse or hooked, stout, 2–8 mm, broad-based.
deciduous or persistent, usually ternate, sometimes simple or pinnately compound;
stipules filiform to linear, 7–17 mm;
leaflets 3(–5), terminal ovate to lanceolate, 3.5–12 × 3–10 cm, base cuneate or rounded to cordate, shallowly sharp-lobed or unlobed, margins coarsely serrate to doubly serrate, apex acute to acuminate, abaxial surfaces with slender, erect prickles on larger veins, moderately to densely hairy, eglandular, rarely sparsely sessile-glandular along midvein.
evergreen to late-deciduous, ternate or palmately compound;
stipules filiform, 5–15 mm;
leaflets 3–5, terminal ovate to elliptic, 6–12 × 7–12 cm, base rounded to cordate, usually deeply, rarely shallowly, lobed, margins coarsely serrate to doubly serrate, apex acuminate to short-attenuate, abaxial surfaces with hooked prickles primarily on midvein, moderately to densely hairy, eglandular or moderately sessile- to short-stipitate-glandular primarily on midvein.
terminal on short shoots, usually appearing axillary, 1–5-flowered, cymiform or racemiform.
terminal, 5–25-flowered, thyrsiform.
prickles moderate to dense, erect, densely hairy, eglandular or sparsely to densely stipitate-glandular.
prickles moderate to dense, erect to reflexed, densely hairy, moderately to densely sessile- to short-stipitate-glandular.
usually functionally unisexual;
petals white, in staminate flowers ovate or obovate to narrowly elliptic, 7–18 mm, in pistillate ovate to elliptic, 6–11 mm;
filaments filiform;
ovaries glabrous or hairy.
bisexual;
petals white to pink, elliptic to obovate, 8–15 mm;
filaments filiform;
ovaries usually apically hairy.
black, sometimes red or purple, rarely white, not pruinose, globose to cylindric, 1–2.5 cm;
drupelets 20–50, strongly coherent, separating with torus attached.
black, globose to subcylindric, 1–1.5 cm;
drupelets 25–60, strongly coherent, separating with torus attached.
= 42, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84, 91.
= 28.
Rubus ursinus
Rubus laciniatus
In habit, Rubus ursinus is often reminiscent of the predominantly eastern North American, non-sympatric R. flagellaris; it is also polymorphic. Rubus ursinus comprises a polyploid spectrum dominated by octoploid and dodecaploid plants. It is an allopolyploid involving phylogenetically distant ancestors with its closest relative being the Hawaiian endemic R. macraei A. Gray. See S. W. Brown (1943) for a discussion of morphological and chromosome number variation in R. ursinus. The widespread, glaucous-stemmed, trifoliate-leaved forms of R. ursinus are vegetatively nearly identical to R. caesius. Of agricultural significance, R. ursinus is a parent of some important cultivars, including loganberry and boysenberry.
There has been uncertainty whether the name Rubus menziesii Hooker and subsequent combinations [Parmena menziesii (Hooker) Greene, R. spectabilis var. menziesii (Hooker) S. Watson, and R. ursinus var. menziesii (Hooker) Focke] pertain to R. spectabilis or R. ursinus. The protologue by Hooker describes a hairy, relatively small, procumbent plant, which is congruent with R. ursinus. The type specimen at Kew also looks like R. ursinus. In the protologue Hooker also claimed the species has red petals and suggested that it may have an affinity with R. spectabilis.
Specimens examined for this study of North American collections attributed to Rubus macrophyllus Weihe & Nees (synonym R. amplificatus Lees) are R. ursinus. If R. macrophyllus was once present in the flora area it is likely absent now; some reports of R. macrophyllus could represent hybrids. There are reports of R. ursinus hybridizing with R. bifrons and R. pensilvanicus in California (T. S. Mallah 1954; L. V. Clark and M. Jasieniuk 2012; L. A. Alice, unpubl.).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Rubus laciniatus is the only blackberry in the flora area that has leaflets so deeply lobed and dissected or has 3-lobed petals. Rare individuals bearing relatively unlobed leaflets and perianth parts may be part of the natural variation of this species or be hybrids with some other species. Putative natural hybrids have been reported with R. bifrons (as R. procerus; R. K. Bammi and H. P. Olmo 1966). Such unusual plants of R. laciniatus would be distinguished from the native blackberries by their thyrsiform and notably stipitate-glandular inflorescences and evergreen to late-deciduous leaves.
Although widely introduced in the flora area, Rubus laciniatus is a less aggressive weed than R. bifrons.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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