categoryZShrubs Shrubs List 
categoryZBroadleaf Broadleaf List 
categoryZSemievergreen Semievergreen List 

CHINESE BRAMBLE

CREEPING CHINESE BRAMBLE

Rubus tricolor

Rose Family [Rosaceae]

Flowers:
month8jun month8june month8jul month8july

Berries: berryZpossible     berryZred;   (very rarely fruits, Drupelet, edible, glaucous)
fruit8aug fruit8sep fruit8sept fruit8oct

category
category8Shrubs
 
category
category8Broadleaf
 
category
category8Semievergreen
 
status
statusZneophyte
 
flower
flower8white
 
inner
inner8pink
 
morph
morph8actino
 
petals
petalsZ5
 
stem
stem8round
 
stem
stem8spines stem8thorns
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, Blackberry and 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.


USE BY BUTTERFLIES
LAYS EGGS ON CATERPILLAR CHRYSALIS BUTTERFLY
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.


  Rubus tricolor  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Rosaceae  

Distribution
 family8Rose family8Rosaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Rubus
Rubus
(Brambles)

CHINESE BRAMBLE

CREEPING CHINESE BRAMBLE

Rubus tricolor

Rose Family [Rosaceae]