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Rubus illecebrosus Focke

Modern name

Rubus illecebrosus Focke

Synonyms

R. rosaefolius var. coronarius f. simpliciflorus Mak.; R. commersonii var. illecebrosus (Focke) Mak.; R. sorbifolius Hort., not Maxim.

A subshrub with creeping, underground stems, sending up green annual flowering shoots 2 to 3 ft high, which are glabrous, angled, and armed with curved prickles. Leaves pinnately compound; leaflets mostly five or seven, lanceolate, 1 to 3 in. long, 12 to 78 in. wide, acuminate, glabrous or slightly downy above, usually downy on the veins beneath; rachis prickly. Flowers white, about 134 in. wide, borne in late summer in few-flowered bracted corymbs. Stamens numerous. Fruits red, round or broadly ellipsoid, about 114 in. wide, with numerous drupelets.

Native of Japan; introduced to the USA towards the end of the last century and thence to Europe. It is grown for its ornamental strawberry-like fruits, which are sweet but insipid, and is recorded as an escape from gardens on the continent and in N. America. Strictly it is not a shrub, as its woody stems creep underground, and the annual stems die back each winter.

R. illecebrosus is allied to the wide-ranging Asiatic R. rosiflorus Sm., of which a double-flowered form ‘Coronarius’ is sometimes grown in greenhouses.


Genus

Rubus

Other species in the genus