A deciduous shrub, with very stout, erect, biennial stems, 1 to 11⁄2 in. thick and in vigorous plants 4 to 6 yards long, covered with a soft, thick, velvety down, and sprinkled over with minute prickles. Leaves 6 to over 12 in. long, composed of three or five leaflets. Side leaflets about half the size of the terminal one, stalkless or nearly so, obliquely ovate, coarsely and doubly toothed, slightly hairy above, covered with a close white felt beneath, and with silvery hairs on the veins; terminal leaflets ovate to roundish heart-shaped, long-stalked, from 3 to 5 in. long and wide, in other respects the same as the side ones. Flowers white or pale pink, 1⁄2 in. across, the petals shorter than the sepals. Fruits blue-black, small.
Native of the Himalaya and of W. and Central China, whence it was introduced about 1901. The Chinese plants are chiefly remarkable for their vigour; Wilson stated that it is occasionally 20 ft high. It is the most robust of all cultivated Rubi; hardy in Britain.