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Rubus cissoides A. Cunn.

Bush Lawyer

Modern name

Rubus cissoides A.Cunn.

Synonyms

R. australia var. cissoides (A. Cunn.) Hook. f.; R. australis sens. some authors, in part, not Forst.

A climbing evergreen dioecious shrub, sometimes reaching to the top of lofty trees in the wild; main stems stout, unarmed; branchlets armed with hooked, reddish prickles. Leaves with three to five leaflets, which are glabrous and glossy above, of leathery texture, serrate, varying much in shape: in some forms (believed to be a juvenile phase) they are linear-lanceolate, 3 to 6 in. long but only 18 to 38 in. wide, in others ovate-lanceolate, 212 to 6 in. long and about 1 in. wide, with a somewhat cordate base, in others again relatively broader, with a truncate or oblique base; main-stalk and the stalks of the leaflets armed with recurved prickles. Flowers unisexual, white, about 12 in. across, produced in often much-branched panicles up to 2 ft long. Fruits about 14 in. wide, reddish orange, only produced when both sexes are grown.

Native of New Zealand. It is the most handsome of the New Zealand Rubi, at least in flower, but tender away from a wall outside the milder parts. It has been confused with R. australis Forst., which has smaller, thinner, long-stalked leaflets up to 2 in. long and 134 in. wide; shorter panicles, to 8 in. long, sometimes reduced to racemes; and yellowish fruits.

R. squarrosus Fritsch R. cissoides var. pauperatus Kirk – In the forests this is a tall climber, its leaves composed of three or five leaflets, which are ovate or ovate-lanceolate, up to 212 in. or slightly more long. Flowers yellowish, in panicles to 6 in. long. Prickles of branchlets yellow. In open places, however, it forms a low, intricately branched shrub with green stems and ‘skeletonised’ leaves: the blade of the leaflet is reduced almost to nothing, being 14 to 12 in. long and 116 to 18 in. wide, while the main stalk and the stalks of the leaflets are up to 8 in. long and usually strongly armed with prickles. This form is well illustrated in Davies, New Zealand Native Plant Studies (1956), p. 71. According to Cockayne, such plants, growing in shade, develop larger leaflets and may bear flowers (which apparently the skeletonised form never does).


Rubus cissoides

Rubus cissoides

Genus

Rubus

Other species in the genus