Almost globular cluster, 10-20 mm diameter of shiny, globular, one seeded, fleshy drupelets (berries). Green initially then ripening to a red, hollow berry or sometimes only a few drupelets will develop. Young carpels smooth and hairless (glabrous).
Seeds:
Light to dark brown, kidney shaped to oval, 2-3 mm long and pitted deeply and irregularly.
Roots:
Large, woody crown.
Key Characters:
Primocanes softly whitish hairy when young becoming somewhat glabrescent with age,
Primocanes rounded or round angled.
Leaves pinnate and mostly with 3 leaflets and sometimes 5 leaflets and densely grey or white hairy underneath.
Leaflets more or less sessile;
Little colour difference between the upper and lower leaf surfaces.
About 7 flowers per inflorescences
Petals pink or red, touching, not cupped, not crumpled.
Woody, prickly shrubs.
Leaflets toothed.
Calyx single, not reflexed.
Carpels becoming little drupes united in a juicy head on the convex torus.
Mature fruit red, falling away from the receptacle when ripe.
From Robyn and Bill Barker, Gwen Harden.
Biology:
Life cycle:
Perennial. Flowers December to February.
Physiology:
Tolerates full sun to full shade but plants grow slowly in full shade.
Reproduction:
By seed and daughter plants that form where canes contact the ground and take root.
Produces seed without fertilization. Pollen is required to stimulate ovule development but doesn't fertilize the egg. The pollen can come from the same or other Native Raspberry plants. The resulting plants are called apomicts and are clones of the mother plant. This means they are very unlikely to develop herbicide resistance or tolerance to biocontrol agents.
Flowering times:
Summer in NSW.
December to February in WA
Seed Biology and Germination:
Seed short lived in the soil.
Vegetative Propagules:
Tip rooting canes, root fragments and cane cuttings. Stems coppice profusely when cut.
Hybrids:
Hybridizes with Rubus hillii.
Allelopathy:
Population Dynamics and Dispersal:
Canes and roots are transported by earth moving equipment and water. Water, birds (especially emus) and foxes spread the seed.
Dumping of garden refuse is a common source of infestations.
Seedling survival is usually low. Most spread is from canes rooting at the tips and forming new daughter plants when the cane dies. Suckering is often increased after spraying with hormone herbicides, slashing, cultivation or burning.
Origin and History:
Native to eastern Australia.
Distribution:
NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC.
There are no native Rubus species in WA and five introduced Rubus species in WA.
Courtesy Australia's Virtual Herbarium.
Habitats:
Water courses and damp areas.
Forested gullies especially above 2000 feet.
Climate:
Temperate, humid and sub-humid regions with an annual rainfall greater than 500 mm.
Soil:
More abundant on fertile soils.
Plant Associations:
Grassland, grassy woodland, dry to wet sclerophyll forest, cool and temperate rainforest, fresh water wetlands and riparian communities and many others.
Significance:
Beneficial:
Berries are picked for food, preserves, jam, pies, wine, liqueurs.
Fruit is rich in vitamin C.
Detrimental:
Weed of pastures, streams, bushland, roadsides, gardens, orchards, plantations and disturbed areas.
Reduces access to amenity areas and streams.
Toxicity:
Not recorded as toxic.
Legislation:
Management and Control:
Grazing prevents tip rooting, goats and deer are more effective than sheep and cattle. Sheep or cattle rarely eat leaves, but cattle nibble the new young shoots and cause trampling damage, which usually stops or slows the rate of spread.
Goats are becoming a favoured method of non-chemical control. Infested areas are grazed with 7.5 goats per ha in the first year, then 1.25 goats per ha in subsequent years.
Slashing alone is ineffective.
If necessary, slash in winter before herbicide application. Late slashing can decrease the effectiveness of herbicides.
A single cultivation usually increases the infestation and multiple cultivations whilst effective may lead to erosion and soil structure problems.
Scalping to 30 cm and root raking can be effective and expensive and requires a follow up with other control measures to control re-shooting root and stem fragments and seedlings. Rehabilitation of the site is required to prevent reinfestation.
Mechanical removal, or slashing and burning followed by cultivation, can provide control if repeated regularly and then followed by planting of competitive, preferably perennial, pastures species that are grazed by cattle or goats.
Seedlings rarely establish in dense pasture.
Control with herbicides is usually the most cost effective. Metsulfuron and triclopyr plus picloram have provided the best results. Glyphosate can be used in home garden or other sensitive areas. Dead canes may be burnt or slashed in the following season to allow access and rehabilitation of the site.
Hand weeding is difficult because the seedlings are difficult to pull and new plants often establish from broken roots.
Fire provides little control alone but assists access for herbicide application or other controls.
Stagger the removal of large infestations to allow animals to relocate.
Triclopyr (Garlon®), triclopyr + picloram (Grazon®) generally provides good control any time the plant is actively growing with good leaf area from October to April. Metsulfuron appears to have an optimal application time of November to March and glyphosate should be restricted to the December to March period.
Basal bark applications using Access plus diesel can be used where canes are removed mechanically.
In Pine plantations hexazinone can be used.
Follow up treatments are essential for high levels of control and to control suckering at the periphery of the bush in the season following spraying.
Low volume spraying is usually effective providing the amount of active ingredient applied per bush is kept constant.
For high volume spraying use 1 litre of mix for each 2.5 cubic metres of Native Raspberry bush (or 2.5 square metres of low lying bushes). This is equivalent to about 4000 L/ha of spray mix being applied.
In large infestations, consider using the cheaper metsulfuron for a year or two to reduce the size of the infestation then follow up with the more effective and costly triclopyr + picloram herbicides.
Thresholds:
Eradication strategies:
Mechanical control is difficult and most of the root system must be removed for effective control.
It is difficult to eradicate. 3 annual, summer applications of 1 L of Grazon® plus 250 mL of Pulse Penetrant® in 100 L of water is expected to provide eradication on 30% of sites. Replant native species after control has been achieved.
On large infestations, 10 g metsulfuron(600g/kg) plus 250 mL Pulse Penetrant in 100 L water, applied in summer when the plant is actively growing, provides a cheaper option to reduce the size of the infestation before Grazon® is used.
Herbicide resistance:
None reported.
It is extremely unlikely that herbicide resistance will develop in Native Raspberry because it is apomictic and all plants are clones of the mother plant.
Native Raspberry is more tolerant to 2,4,5 T than other Blackberry species (Milne & Dellow, 1998)
Biological Control:
Biological control agents introduced for European Blackberry control have little effect on Native Raspberry.
Related plants:
There are no native Rubus species in WA.
Blackberry (Rubus anglocandicans = Rubus discolor = Rubus procerus, Rubus fruticosus, Rubus ulmifolius)
Plains or Bundy (American) Blackberry (Rubus laudatus) flowers in September to November with fruit in December - somewhat earlier than Native Raspberry. The leaves tend to be green on the upper an lower surfaces rather than whitish on the lower surface. The flowers are white with no pink tinges. Glandular hairs on the canes that look like red dots under a hand lens.
Blackberry (Rubus anglocandicans) is the main weedy variety in WA. Its main flowering is in December to January and it has white flowers (though it may be pinkish in the bud). The leaves tend to be whitish on the lower surface.
Blackberry (Rubus ulmifolius) has pinkish petals and smaller leaves than R. anglocandicans. Some varieties are thornless.
Boysenberry (Rubus loganobaccus was R. ursinus) has narrow straight thorns.
Cutleaf Blackberry (Rubus laciniatus ssp. laciniatus) has cut leaf - see diagram.
Loganberry (Rubus loganobaccus, Rubus ursinus, Rubus x loganobaccus) has narrow straight thorns and usually flowers later than blackberry.
Mountain Raspberry (Rubus gunnianus)
Native Raspberry (Rubus hillii = Rubus moluccanus) is a native and has simple palmately lobed leaves.
North American Dewberry (Rubus roribaccus)
Raspberry (Rubus idaeus)
Rose-leaved Bramble (Rubus rosifolius) is a native plant.
Wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius)
Yellow Raspberry (Rubus ellipticus)
Rubus alceifolius
Rubus chloocladus
Rubus cissburiensis
Rubus discolor = Rubus procerus is not in Australia but the older literature refers to R. anglocandicans as R. discolor in Western Australia and R. procerus in the eastern states.
Rubus koehleri
Rubus leightonii
Rubus polyanthemus
Rubus pyramidalis
Rubus radula
Rubus rosaceus
Rubus selmeri = R. laciniatus
Rubus vestitus
Apple (Pirus malus), Pear (Pirus communis), Quince (Cydonia vulgaris), Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), Plum (Prunus domestica), Apricot (Prunus armeniaca), Almond (Prunus amygdalus), Peach (Prunus persica) and Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) are all in the same family as Blackberry.
Plants of similar appearance:
See the Weedy Blackberry and Rose key.
Blackberries, Brambles, Dog Rose, Loganberry, Raspberry.
References:
Auld, B.A. and Medd R.W. (1992). Weeds. An illustrated botanical guide to the weeds of Australia. (Inkata Press, Melbourne). P217-218. Photos.
Barker, Robyn and Barker, Bill (2005). Blackberry. An identification tool to introduced and native Rubus in Australia. Edition 1.00. State Herbarium of South Australia.
Black, J.M. (1965). Flora of South Australia. (Government Printer, Adelaide, South Australia). P396. Diagram.
Burbidge, N.T. and Gray, M. (1970). Flora of the Australian Capital Territory. (Australian National University Press, Canberra). P192, 194. Diagram.
Harden, Gwen J. (1991). Flora of NSW. (Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney). Volume 1. P532. Diagram.
Lazarides, M. and Cowley, K. and Hohnen, P. (1997). CSIRO handbook of Australian Weeds. (CSIRO, Melbourne). #868.15.
Acknowledgments:
Collated by HerbiGuide. Phone 08 98444064 or www.herbiguide.com.au for more information.