|
 An
Illustrated Guide to
Common Weeds
of New Zealand
Rubus
fruticosus
blackberry
Family
ROSACEAE
Reproduced from
Common
Weeds of New Zealand
by Bruce Roy, Ian Popay, Paul Champion, Trevor James & Anis
Rahman
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 Plant Conservation Network Weeds Fact Sheets
- Search for 1500 weed fact sheets mainly derived from the Department of
Conservation's BIOWEB weeds database.
 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."
-
 New
Zealand Landcare Trust
- Plant Pest information including Pictures, Distribution Maps, References,
Environmental Effects and Control.
-
- New
Zealand Aquatic Weeds
- Hosted by the weed management group of NIWA (National Institute of Water
and Atmospheric Research).
-
- Weed
Control Manual 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.
-
- Australian
Plants as Weeds
- Part of the Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants website.
- Department
of Agriculture Western Australia
- Collection of weed resources from the Department of Agriculture, Government
of Western Australia
- 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 on the Australian
mainland.
-
-
- New
Jersey Weed Gallery, USA
- Listing of common and botanical names and images, plus a small amount
of information for weeds that cause problems in the USA.
- Invasive
and Exotic Species of North America
- Images and other information from the University of Georgia.
- University
of California
- Weed Photo Gallery, with common and botanical names.
-
- 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."
-
- Invasive
Woody Plants
- Collection of research and associated literature for invasive woody plants
in the tropics and the temperate zone.
-
- WeedScience.com
- Site that includes a comprehensive collection of weed images from around
the world.
-
-
 Books
on Weeds from FetchBook.Info
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