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 An
Illustrated Guide to
Common Weeds
of New Zealand
Rubus
fruticosus
blackberry
Family
ROSACEAE
Reproduced from
Common
Weeds of New Zealand
by Ian Popay, Paul Champion & Trevor James
ISBN 0 473 09760 5
by kind permission of the
New
Zealand Plant Protection Society
Publication or other use of images or descriptive
text on these pages is unauthorised unless written permission is
obtained from the authors and publisher.
Appropriate acknowledgement
of the publication Common Weeds of New Zealand must always
be given.
Available from Manaaki-Whenua
Press and Touchwood
Books
 Very
prickly, scrambling, woody perennial shrub up to 2 m or more tall,
bearing large white or pink flowers followed by black berries. Extremely
variable in leaf shape and plant form.
- Flowers
White to pink, 2-3 cm in diameter, with five petals and numerous
stamens, in many-flowered clusters. Flowers Nov-Apr.
- Fruit
Aggregated berries 10-15 mm long, red at first, turning black
when ripe, made up of twenty to fifty two-seeded drupelets. Seeds
widely spread by birds.
- Leaves
Compound, three to five, oval, toothed leaflets arranged palmately.
Stalks and mid-ribs prickly.
- Stems
Up to 8 m long, arching, entangling, woody, armed with savage
backward pointing thorns. Stems rooting at tips to form new plants.
New stems grow from the base each year.
- Roots
Stout, branched, creeping underground roots.
Habitat
Reverting land, scrub,
road-sides, hedgerows, swamps and waste places.
Distribution
Common to locally abundant
throughout NZ including Stewart and Chatham Islands. Originally
from temperate northern hemisphere regions.
Comments
Very common nuisance
weed. Can become a major weed of pastures in some areas, like
Wairoa. A preferred food for goats, which control it effectively,
but need to be confined with it. Otherwise, control can be difficult.
Seedlings are very slow growing, and can be controlled by moderate
grazing pressure. The species is extremely variable and has sometimes
been divided into many species and very many varieties. One of
the more distinctive, sometimes distinguished as a separate species,
is cut-leaved blackberry (Rubus laciniatus). All blackberries
are subject to Pest Plant Management Strategies in several regions
of NZ. Details are available from individual regional councils
or unitary authorities.
Related
species
Other species of Rubus
include the native bush lawyers (Rubus australis, Rubus
cissoides and Rubus schmidelioides), with long,
semi-woody stems, sprawling or climbing in native forest and bush
margins. They have backward-pointing spines that often hinder
the progress of humans or animals through the bush.
Derivation
of botanical name
Rubus (Lat.)
= bramble; fruticosus (Lat.) = bushy.
Web-notes:
Weed Links
On this site
Reproduced from Common Weeds
of New Zealand:
External Links
 Weedbusters
New Zealand
- Weedbusters is a weeds awareness and education programme that aims to
protect New Zealand's environment from the increasing weed problem.
 New Zealand Weeds Key
- An interactive identification key to the weeds of New Zealand. Developed at Landcare Research.
New
Zealand Plant Conservation Network naturalised plants
- Search for information on more than 2500 naturalise and weedy plants.
 New
Zealand Plant Protection Society
- Their main objective: "To pool and exchange information on the biology
of weeds, invertebrate and vertebrate pests, pathogens and beneficial organisms
and methods for modifying their effects."
-
-
- Weed
Index for the Bay of Plenty
- Weeds information compiled by Environment Bay of Plenty.
-
 Massey
University Weeds Database- A site providing information about New Zealand weeds and weed control.
It has a series of pages showing pictures of New Zealand weeds, notes on
identification and control. It also provides information on a university
paper entitled Controlling Weeds.
-
- Canterbury
Weed Guide
- A weed identification guide prepared by the Christchurch City Council.
-
-
-
-
-
- Weeds in Australia
- Weeds website of the Australian Government.
Environmental Weeds in Australia
Part of the Australian Native Plants Society website.
- Weed
Society of Victoria
- Promoting wider awareness and interest in weeds and their management.
Includes a useful page of links
to other weed societies.
-
- Tamar
Valley Weeds Strategy
- Listing of common and botanical names, images, and information including
control methods for weeds found in Tasmania, and also weeds of national significance.
-
-
- Invasive
and Exotic Species of North America
- Images and other information from the University of Georgia.
-
- World
of Weeds
- Weed-related resources including weed science, practical tools, gardening
tips about controlling weeds, and environmental news updates.
-
- Invasive
Species Specialist Group
- "The ISSG aims to reduce threats to natural ecosystems and the native
species they contain by increasing awareness of invasive alien species,
and of ways to prevent, control or eradicate them."
- WeedScience
- Site that includes a comprehensive collection of weed images from around
the world.
-
-
 Books
on Weeds from FetchBook.Info
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