Rubus jacens

Botanical Description

Rubus jacens is a deciduous shrub producing each year a cluster of slender, low-arching to more or less prostrate, prickly biennial stems growing 60 - 100cm long from a woody rootstock. The stems only produce leaves, and do not flower, in their first year, forming flowering branches in their second year and then dying after fruiting. Plants usually form new roots in the autumn at the tips of 1 year old stems, thus producing new plants and forming thickets of growth, The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food.