Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Subfamily: Rosoideae
Tribe: Rubeae
Genus: Rubus
Botanical name: Rubus cissoides
Common names: Bush lawyer, bramble, lawyer, Tataramoa
The New Zealand hook climbers are all species of Rubus, a genus which includes the familiar blackberry and raspberry. The bush lawyers are small, unspecialised climbers whose weak, drawn-out stems grow up between the branches of shrubs and trail over them and their reddish hooks on the underside of branchlets enable them to reach great heights, up to 15 m. The leaves varying in sizes and shapes (7-15cm x 3-10mm or 6-15cm x 2-6cm), they have five leaflets with toothed margins. Rubus cissoids flowers from June to August. The flowers are dioecious (individual flowers are either male or female), but only one sex is to be found on any one plant so there are both male and female plants. They are pollinated by Insects. It has orange-red berries 5-10mm long and 7mm in diameter. The sap can be extracted and used raw or cooked. A purple dull blue dye is obtained from the fruit which is edible but they are tasteless.
Male flowers with anthers radiating from the floral disc
Female flowers. November. Westcoast.
Female flowers.
Photo of leaves that are shorter than plant above. Photographed Westland South Island
