A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Rubus crataegifolius Bunge

Modern name

Rubus crataegifolius Bunge

An erect, deciduous shrub of stiff habit, 6 to 8 ft high, with stout biennial stems branched towards the top, grooved and armed with small scattered prickles. Leaves on the barren shoots of the year, large, palmately three- or five-lobed, 5 to 8 in. across, heart-shaped at the base, sharply and often doubly toothed, downy beneath; stalks and midrib prickly; leaves of the flowering twigs much smaller, usually three-lobed. Flowers 34 to 1 in. across; produced in clusters terminating short twigs; petals white, prettily crimped at the margins; calyx segments lanceolate, much decurved. Fruits the size of a small raspberry, red.

Native of China, Korea, and Japan. The epithet crataegifolius is only appropriate to the small leaves of the flowering twigs; on the barren, first-year stems they are more like those of a vine or maple, and in good soil are sometimes of very large size – 8 to 12 in. across.


Genus

Rubus

Other species in the genus