Shrubs List |
Broadleaf List |
Semievergreen List |
Rose Family [Rosaceae] |
Flowers: |
Berries: ; (very rarely fruits, Drupelet, edible, glaucous) |
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prickles
25th March 2015, canal cutting, Adlington, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
An introduced foreign, low-growing and sprawling plant which, given the opportunity, spreads over large areas by rooting at the tips. Older leaves are weakly pinnately 3 or 5-lobed. Younger leaves are simple, finely-toothed and ovate. |
5th March 2015, Rochdale Canal, Rochdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves a darker shade of green and shiny on the top surface. |
15th July 2019, a wall, Luddenden, Rochdale Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
20th June 2013, Rochdale Canal, Rochdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
A branch in search of somewhere new to root (which it does at the tip). |
5th March 2015, Rochdale Canal, Rochdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Stems red or green, with a dense covering of softish, reddish and narrow but tapering hairs rather than prickles or thorns. |
5th March 2015, Rochdale Canal, Rochdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Rear of leaves unexpectedly very pale creamy-green. |
5th March 2015, Rochdale Canal, Rochdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Veins of leaves either reddish or green, but always covered in (shorter) fine reddish hairs. |
20th June 2013, Rochdale Canal, Rochdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Here green veins, but hairs still red. |
5th June 2013, near gardens, Moses Gate, Bolton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The teeth of the leaves have even shorter reddish tips. |
10th May 2015, near gardens, Moses Gate, Bolton, Lancs | Photo: © RWD |
Your Author took many photos of these thinking they were the flowers, but they are not: this plant very seldom flowers! It is an ornamental garden plant to cover vast areas of expanse. The curved-over reddish tips are where new leaves are forged. |
5th June 2013, near gardens, Moses Gate, Bolton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
New leaves being created at the tip of the growing reflexed tip. |
7th June 2017, railway bridge approach, Bury Grammar School, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
An as-yet un-opened flower with the five red-haired sepals still enveloping it. |
15th July 2019, a wall, Luddenden, Rochdale Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowering stems often arise up, but the flowers themselves are quite scarce on any plant. |
15th July 2019, a wall, Luddenden, Rochdale Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
Three drooping white flowers here. |
15th July 2019, a wall, Luddenden, Rochdale Canal. | Photo: © RWD |
This specimen almost hidden. |
7th June 2017, railway bridge approach, Bury Grammar School, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The 5 somewhat less that fresh white petals surrounding a large bunch of white styles with stigmas at the ends. |
7th June 2017, railway bridge approach, Bury Grammar School, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The styles and stigmas in close-up. |
7th June 2017, railway bridge approach, Bury Grammar School, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The petals have dropped off the flowers leaving the 5 long, narrow white sepals and what appear to be two sets of styles, the outer encircling the inner set. The organ from where the inner set of styles emerge will probably become the red aggregate fruit (?) |
5th July 2014, Seaforth, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
When, if ever, it decides to flower, it flowers in racemic clusters. Your Author has still never actually seen it flowering, but these are the results of fertilised flowers. The plant is not self-fertile, which is why it seldom flowers. |
5th July 2014, Seaforth, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Five long, tapered pale-green sepals covered in long reddish hairs on the outer surface envelop the flowers, but fold back to reveal the bright-red fruit. |
5th July 2014, Seaforth, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The anthers are still present, albeit brown and spent on the edge of this orange collar. |
5th July 2014, Seaforth, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
Like Raspberry, Blackberryand Dewberry, the fruit is a drupe, developed from the many ovaries in a single flower - one of several kinds of aggregate fruit. [Strawberry, on the other hand, is not a drupe, but is an aggregate of drupelets, formed from the receptacle which holds the ovaries and not from the ovaries themselves, where each achene on the outside (which looks like a 'seed') is one of the ovaries of the flower with the actual seed inside that]. The fruit of Chinese Bramble is a translucent-red (like the glace berries of Guelder-rose), with the remains of a long thin stigma still hanging off each Drupelet. Unlike a Wild Strawberry or Garden Strawberry (where the many single seeds are on the outside of the red fleshy fused receptacle), the seeds of the aggregate fruit of Chinese Bramble are inside each druplet. They are juicy and sometimes edible. |
LAYS EGGS ON | CATERPILLAR | CHRYSALIS | BUTTERFLY |
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Adonis Blue Brown Hairstreak Gatekeeper Heath Fritillary High Brown Fritillary Holly Blue Large Heath Ringlet Silver-washed Fritillary White Admiral White-letter Hairstreak |
Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Feature : Spreads enormously and has the characteristics described under the photo captions. This is a neophyte - an introduced alien species originally from China but now widely planted by gardeners who then often regret installing it since it spreads everywhere, and well beyond their own boundaries. It hardly ever flowers, so the attraction must be in the ability to spread and cover large areas fast, which it accomplishes with aplomb. It is a low-growing plant, self-rooting at the tips. The flowers are white if the reader ever gets to see them, your Author has still not. The berries are even more elusive, requiring fertilisation of the rare flowers and the plant does not self-pollinate. The leaves are semi-deciduous. It is spreading fast and should, if it is not already, be on the incredibly invasive species list.
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Rubus | tricolor | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Rosaceae |
Rubus (Brambles) |
Rose Family [Rosaceae] |