川莓 chuan mei

Rubus cavaleriei H. Léveillé & Vaniot; R. clemens Focke; R. lyi H. Léveillé; R. omeiensis Rolfe; R. pacatus Focke; R. pacatus var. alypus Focke; R. setchuenensis var. omeiensis (Rolfe) Handel-Mazzetti; R. singulifolius Focke.

Shrubs 2–5 m tall. Branchlets yellowish brown when young, brown or reddish brown in age, terete, densely yellowish tomentose-villous, gradually glabrescent, unarmed. Leaves simple; petiole 5–7 cm, yellowish tomentose-villous, often unarmed; stipules caducous, free, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, rarely narrowly ovate, 7–11 mm and nearly as broad, tomentose-villous, apex palmately laciniate; blade suborbicular or broadly ovate, 7–15 cm in diam., palmately 5-veined, lateral veins 2 or 3 pairs, raised abaxially, abaxially densely gray tomentose, sometimes hairs gradually deciduous, adaxially scabrous, glabrous or soft hairy along veins, base cordate, margin 5–7-lobed; lobes shallowly divided again, apex obtuse, rarely acute, unevenly shallowly obtusely dentate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, narrow cymose panicles, 8–14 cm, to 20 cm in fruit, axillary inflorescences smaller, sometimes flowers few in clusters in leaf axils; rachis and pedicels densely yellowish tomentose-villous; bracts similar to stipules in shape, 5–9 × 3–5 mm, tomentose-villous, apex palmate-laciniate. Pedicel ca. 1 cm. Flowers 1–1.5 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially yellowish tomentose, intermixed soft hairy; sepals erect in fruit, rarely reflexed, ovate-lanceolate, margin entire or outer sepals shallowly laciniate apically, apex caudate. Petals purplish red, obovate or suborbicular, 4–6 mm in diam., much shorter than sepals, glabrous, base clawed. Stamens many, shorter than petals; filaments linear, glabrous. Pistils longer than stamens; style and ovary glabrous. Aggregate fruit black, semiglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam., glabrous, often enclosed in persistent calyx; pyrenes small, smooth. Fl. Jul–Aug, fr. Sep–Oct. 2n = 28*.

Slopes, roadsides, forest margins, thickets; 500--3000 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan.

This species often forms dense, impenetrable thickets on deforested slopes.