Rubus purpureus Bunge ex J. D. Hooker.

Subshrubs or herblike, 10–60 cm tall. Branchlets brown or reddish brown to purplish red, with purple needle-like prickles, soft hairs, and stipitate glands. Leaves imparipinnate, 3-foliolate, rarely 5-foliolate; petiole 3–5 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 1–2 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, with purple needle-like prickles, soft hairs, and glandular hairs; stipules greenish brown, linear or linear-lanceolate, 7–9 mm, pubescent, with intermixed glandular hairs; blade of leaflets ovate or elliptic, 3–5 × 2–3.5 cm, abaxially densely gray tomentose, adaxially puberulous, base broadly cuneate to subrounded, subtruncate on terminal leaflet, margin unevenly coarsely serrate or doubly serrate, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, nutant, 1–3-flowered; bracts linear, 5–7 mm, pubescent, with intermixed glandular hairs. Pedicel 1.5–3 cm, prickly, pubescent, with stalked glands. Flowers 1.5–2 cm in diam. Calyx tinged purplish red, with purple needle-like prickles, soft hairs, and stalked glands; tube shallowly cupular; sepals erect, narrowly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 1–1.5 cm × 3–5 mm, apex acuminate to caudate. Petals white, broadly elliptic or spatulate, 8–11 × 5–7 mm, shorter than sepals, pubescent, base shortly clawed. Stamens numerous, slightly shorter than petals; filaments linear. Pistils nearly as long as or slightly shorter than stamens; ovary gray tomentose. Aggregate fruit red, subglobose, 1–1.5 cm in diam., tomentose; pyrenes smooth or somewhat reticulate. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep.

Slopes, forest margins, thickets; 2000--4500 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, SE Xizang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, NW India, Kashmir, Pakistan].