Rubus nemoralis

Rubus nemoralis is a deciduous bramble of the rose family Rosaceae and one of the many microspecies that make up the apomictic Rubus fruticosus aggregate of European blackberries. It grows as an arching, prickly shrub with biennial canes (primocanes and floricanes) typically 1 to 2 metres long, the stems angled and bearing slender, slightly hooked prickles. Leaves on flowering shoots are palmately compound with three to five ovate, sharply doubly serrate leaflets, dark green and nearly glabrous above and paler beneath, the terminal leaflet usually long-stalked and somewhat heart-shaped at the base. In summer it bears open panicles of white to pale-pink five-petalled flowers up to 2.5 cm across, each with numerous stamens and carpels. The fruits are typical blackberries: aggregates of small black drupelets that ripen in late summer and autumn. The species occurs in woodland edges, clearings, hedgerows and heathy ground across parts of western and central Europe, particularly the British Isles and Scandinavia, where it is one of many regionally distinct bramble microspecies.