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Rubus cissoides
Rubus cissoides, commonly called bush lawyer or tātarāmoa in te reo Māori, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae.
The species forms perennial scrambling vines with reddish prickles on the branches, compound leaves with 3-5 leaflets each up to 15 centimetres (6 in) long, white flowers from September to November and red berries from December to April.
Rubus cissoides is endemic to and widespread in New Zealand, and occurs on all three of the main islands: North Island, South Island and Stewart Island. It is found in lowland and montane habitats, often in forests, but also in scrub and wetland margins, often in moist, sunny environments.
Rubus cissoides and other native New Zealand Rubus species were used by Māori and continue to have multiple uses, including as food, construction materials, or medicines. The fruits are eaten by birds and people, the branches can be used for making traps, and the crushed berries form a dye which is blue or purple in colour. Some of the ways Māori used Rubus plants medicinally include using the bark of the stem to treat abdominal pains, using root bark to treat diarrhea, and preparing crushed leaves to relieve chest congestions and colds.
Bundy Blackberry · Garden dewberry · Thorny dewberry · Windham County Blackberry · Rubus adenophorus · Tropical Highland Blackberry · Peaty dewberry · Alaska blackberry · Allegheny blackberry · Rubus alnifolius · Rubus alpinus · Maine dewberry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rubus cissoides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
