Rubus nobilissimus – Section Rubus
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A pink-flowered bramble with large leaves and glabrous stems with sparse prickles. Primarily a species of peaty substrates on bogs and heaths, with hotspots on the Somerset moors (where most of these photos were taken) and the New Forest, Hampshire. It is otherwise scattered in southern Britain and south-west Ireland. It can be confused with Rubus divaricatus, another pink-flowered bramble in the section and also bears a strong resemblance to Rubus chloophyllus.
This is a 'suberect' bramble which produces long, upright or horizontal stems. The panicle consists of about 10-15 flowers, mostly in a terminal head which may be almost flat-topped, with simple and 3-foliate leaves below. The rachis is thinly hairy with sessile glands and a few curved prickles. The floral branches have more numerous hairs than the rachis but no prickles.
Flowers are 2-2.5cm diameter, petals usually bright pink, sometimes fading to white, broadly elliptical to obovate, c.12 x 7-8mm, concave. The stamens exceed the height of the styles; filaments are white or pale pink; anthers sometimes slightly hairy. The styles may be green or in sunny conditions yellow with a red base. Carpels and receptacle are hairy. The fruit is small and turns black.
Sepals are bright green, shiny and nearly glabrous in the middle, with pubescent, narrowly white-edged margins. They are short pointed, somewhat patent at flowering, becoming loosely reflexed.
Leaves have 3-5 but usually 5 leaflets, which are mid green to yellowish-green in colour, sparsely pubescent or glabrous and dull above. The terminal leaflet is c.7-10 x 5-6cm, generally ovate in shape with an acuminate apex and an emarginate or narrowly cordate base. It is usually slightly convex in shade or may become concave in more exposed situations (younger leaves have sides folded inwards). The margins are shallowly and fairly evenly serrate.
Leaflets are thinly pubescent and somewhat shiny, paler green below.
The non-flowering stem is relatively slender, sharply or bluntly angled with furrowed sides and appears moderately shiny. It is pale green in the shade but develops a reddish brown colour when exposed to the sun. The main prickles on the angles are generally sparse but relatively stout, straight or curved and about the same or slightly shorter than the width of the stem. The prickles on the petioles are more strongly hooked. The stem is almost hairless and only has sessile glands which may be sparse or numerous.
